Long-term Strategy

Bush Heritage Australia - Strategic Plan for 2007 - 2011

Our previous strategic plan was agreed with the Board in November 2002, and covered the five years to 2007. Since that time we have achieved and exceeded all the targets set in that plan.

Achievements in the 2002-2007 strategic plan.

• acquiring 10 reserves totalling 610 000 hectares;
• expanding our influence in conservation management on a landscape scale through our Beyond-the-Boundaries program;
• undertaking the Anchors in the Landscape major gifts campaign, which successfully raised $20 million.

Our next strategic plan sets more optimistic goals

Our vision is to protect by 2025 one per cent of Australia (more than 7 million hectares) and in so doing conserve significant areas of Australia’s land and water of high conservation significance. This goal of one per cent has been derived from national scientific assessments which conclude that a significant proportion of Australia’s land mass needs to be protected in order to effectively conserve Australia’s animals and plants and their habitats.

We will target land that is highly productive and:
     • where there is exceptional species richness, endemism and numbers of threatened species; or
     • where the land is poorly represented in the reserve system; or
     • where the land is important for critical ecosystem processes, such as key drought refuge areas or migratory sites.

Our Beyond the Boundaries program will further our conservation objectives by supporting the further acquisition of land, and by building partnerships that improve the conservation outcomes on land owned by others.

All our work will be underpinned by a sound science-based approach which will govern how we acquire and manage land for conservation, and how we measure the ecological improvements achieved through our management.

Our supporters are at the centre of what we do. Our strategy continues to be focussed on providing personalised contact with our supporters to build close and long-term relationships.

Our reserve acquisition and partnership development are governed by our Anchors in the Landscape framework. This focuses our activities in five ‘anchor’ regions, which have been selected on the basis of national biodiversity priorities, the location of our existing reserves and where we wish to establish strategic partnerships.

The anchor regions are:

• the Gulf to Lake Eyre region in Queensland and Northern Territory
• the South-west Botanical Province in WA (including Gondwana Link)
• the South-east Grassy Box Woodlands mainly in NSW and Victoria
• the Midlands of Tasmania, and
• the Brigalow belt and Einasleigh uplands of Queensland

We will continue to take opportunities to acquire and be a partner in land ownership outside anchor regions, but at a lower priority and only where our activities will support the conservation objectives specified in the Anchors in the Landscape framework.

The Anchors in the Landscape Framework outlines the criteria, steps, and tools we use to target properties within regions; how we manage threats to achieve defined ecological outcomes through a learning-based Adaptive Management System; how we collaborate to achieve conservation outcomes on land owned by others (Beyond the Boundaries); and how we adapt to change such as the threat of climate change.