Resilience & capability

Deepening and doubling our impact

Nature has shown us time and time again that we need to do more. Thirty years ago, a group of people heard this call and stepped up to prevent two forest blocks from being logged, in what would become the foundation story of Bush Heritage Australia.

Five years ago, recognising that Australia was in the middle of what some scientists were describing as the ‘sixth great species extinction’, Bush Heritage decided to increase the scope of our conservation work under the objectives of the 2017-2022 Strategic Plan.

In this time, we grew the area of land that we work across from 4.98 million hectares to 11.3 million hectares, driven largely by investing in our Aboriginal partnership program.

The number of threatened species protected on our reserves increased, supported by strong conservation plans and processes. Our active supporter base grew to over 55,000 people. And our brand awareness is now the strongest it has ever been.

Today, nature is still facing increased threats and there is still more work to be done. So, we are stepping up once more. At the end of 2021, we announced our most ambitious strategy to date: to deepen and double our impact across more than 30 million hectares of land – an area larger than the size of Tasmania and Victoria combined – by 2030.

As ambitious as this goal is, we know it is achievable thanks to the foundations we’ve established in our 30 years and because of our people, our community, our right-way approach, science and technology, and through our astute use of all resources.

At the heart of our new strategic plan are three key pillars around which our growth will occur: reserves, Aboriginal partnerships and natural capital in agriculture.

Building on our existing expertise in land management, we will double the amount of land that we own and manage alongside Traditional Owners to 2.4 million hectares.

We will also deepen our relationships with Aboriginal partners on Aboriginal-held land through a right-way approach. And, in an emerging focus area, we will work with farmers to enhance and protect biodiversity on productive lands.

Our 2030 Strategy signifies a shift towards longer-term strategic planning at the highest levels of our organisation because we know that’s what real, transformational change requires.

Regenerating the rangelands of WA

A new carbon project on our Hamelin Reserve, Malgana country in Western Australia, will allow thousands of hectares of native vegetation to recover while at the same time generating income for the reserve and local community through associated carbon sequestration.

Hamelin is a 202,644-hectare former sheep station that sits adjacent to the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Although the reserve was de-stocked after its purchase in 2015, stray goats and sheep from neighbouring properties continue to slow vegetation recovery and exacerbate soil erosion.

To enable country to regain its full potential, Bush Heritage and our neighbours constructed 84km of boundary fencing, most of which was completed last year. It’s expected that, with careful management, the subsequent regeneration of vegetation will capture over 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere throughout the project’s 25-year lifespan.

By working in consultation with Traditional Owners and carbon project partner Climate Friendly, this project is expected to generate carbon credits and income to support Bush Heritage and Malgana people to undertake important conservation work into the future to further protect local World Heritage values.

Farming for the Future

Across Australia, farmers are realising that managing and protecting the natural capital on their properties can benefit both environmental and business outcomes.

Drought resilience, enhanced productivity and reduced spending on inputs can all contribute to a healthy bottom line, while access to stewardship payments and carbon credits provide additional incentives and means for farmers to invest in evolving their practices.

But farmers need clear evidence of the link between natural capital and farm profitability if the practice is to be adopted more widely. Farming for the Future is a multi-year research program led by the Macdoch Foundation and the National Farmers Federation, with support from PwC, that aims to fill this evidence gap through a study of more than 1000 farms.

The program builds on the work of the La Trobe University Smartfarms Farm-scale Natural Capital Accounts project that is compiling accounts for 50 farms across eastern Australia. As the biodiversity conservation partner for both these projects, Bush Heritage ecologists are assessing the native vegetation condition on those farms.

The data they collect will be compiled into natural capital accounts and will contribute to insights and tools that other farmers can use to make informed decisions about their businesses. The accounts also create the opportunity for Bush Heritage to engage farmers, farm advisors and their stakeholders in planning for biodiversity (and other) improvements on farm, that will be reflected in future accounts.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure, and most farmers haven’t ever put biodiversity on the books. They’ve never measured how healthy their remnant vegetation is or asked, ‘how much do native pest-eating birds in that remnant vegetation benefit the crops in nearby paddocks?”
-Angela Hawdon, Business Development and Strategic Projects Manager