Our Natural Legacy: Private Land Conservation Forum for Landholders

WHERE: ALBURY-WODONGA

WHEN: Thu 29th August, plus optional field trips on Fri 30th

It’s no secret that Australian landholders love nature and play an important role in looking after it.  With 60% of Australian land privately owned or managed, it presents a big opportunity to turn the tide on nature loss.

Across the country there are already thousands of landholders who choose to manage their natural or productive landscapes in a way that benefits nature. Some enter into a legal agreement to protect the biodiversity on their land – usually called a ‘conservation covenant’. Others engage in activities such as tree planting, weed management, or wildlife monitoring to restore biodiversity and habitat.

This forum serves as a platform for landholders from different regions and states to learn from and connect with each other, and share their priorities with key organisations.

Who should attend?

Whether you’re already involved in looking after nature on the land in your care and eager to connect with others, or simply ‘conservation curious’ and want to know more about what’s involved and how it can benefit both natural and productive landscapes, this forum is for you!

Through field trips, panel talks, and plenty of networking time with other landholders, as well as specialist practitioners, and land conservation organisations, attendees will gain insights into:

• The big picture. Find out how nature’s faring, what private land conservation is achieving, and how more landholders can be supported to look after nature.
• Grassroots stories. Landholders from across the country share what they’re doing on their land and how it’s helping recover threatened species, improve landscape resilience to natural disasters, diversify farming income, and more.
• First Nations connections. Landholders and First Nations partners explore what you could consider from a cultural perspective when undertaking conservation activities or implementing a conservation agreement.
• Looking after yourself. Ecological loss has an impact on health and wellbeing – but on the flipside, undertaking conservation activities has mental health benefits. Get practical tips to improve your health and wellbeing, and find out about the support that’s available.
• Landholders leading change. Learn about the landholder-led conservation networks that already exist, where there’s gaps, and help shape a plan for how a national network of conservation landholders can stay connected, and influence change. Plus a chance to provide feedback about what matters to you, to state and national-scale land conservation organisations.
• Field trips. Learn from the experiences of others on a guided field trip with local landholders and staff from private land conservation organisations.

Why is this event important?

Private land conservation is a critical part of creating a healthy and resilient Australia. By bringing landholders together at a cross-border scale, this event provides an opportunity to learn from each other, network and build connections, and provide feedback to land management organisations with state and national influence.

The forum is part of Our Natural Legacy – a national campaign to grow support for landholders who are making space for nature. The forum is being delivered by the Australian Land Conservation Alliance (ALCA), with support from the Biodiversity Conservation Trust NSW (BCT NSW),  Trust for Nature Victoria, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Charles Sturt University.

ALCA is a peak national body representing organisations doing on-ground conservation work on private land. It supports its members to scale their impact for people and nature through: sector development, advocating for good policy and regulation, driving nature investment, and building an Australian community that understands and values the role of nature.

BCT NSW partners with landholders to enhance and conserve biodiversity across NSW by entering into private land conservation agreements with landholders.

Trust for Nature permanently protect habitat on private land by helping landholders to put conservation covenants on their property.