Special General Meeting and guest speaker Fern Hames on 1 May 2023

Members and friends of LCV are invited to attend our Special General Meeting – our first hybrid meeting giving you the option of joining via zoom or attending in person in Melbourne.

At this meeting, we will be asking members to vote on amendments to our Rules of Incorporation, which will enable us to apply for tax-deductible gift recipient status.

Following the formalities we will hear from our guest speaker – Fern Hames, Director, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research and Fellow of the Royal Society of Victoria, where our meeting is being held.

Fern will speak about the important role that private land conservation plays in the wider picture of Victoria’s biodiversity. For those who wish to read more, in December 2022 the Royal Society of Victoria released Towards Conservation & Recovery of Victoria’s Biodiversity – Report and Position Paper.

Fern is an inspiring speaker and she will touch on themes of behaviour change, collective action and impact and telling stories that encourage people to value, connect and act for nature. There will be time for questions and mingling, so we hope to meet some of you in person!

MEETING DETAILS

Date & time: Monday 1st May at 7pm
Attend in person: Royal Society of Victoria, 8 La Trobe Street, Melbourne (map here)
Attend via zoom – link below. Passcode 498136

The rise of private land conservation in Victoria

Landholders from all over Victoria gathered in April (2023) at a stunning wetland property to celebrate the contribution private land conservation makes to protecting our biodiversity.

“Wirra-Lo”, recently featured on ABC TV’s Landline, is a 180-hectare property in Murrabit, near Kerang. Like nearly 2,000 other properties in Victoria, the plants, animals and habitat of this private land are protected forever with a conservation covenant. Wirra-Lo showcases how former farming land can be restored to wetlands booming with wildlife.

The visiting landholders, most of whom manage their own covenanted land, toured the property sharing ideas and solutions to land management issues. Key themes included monitoring threatened species, controlling pest plants and animals, succession planning and working with Traditional Owners.

The event was hosted by Land Covenantors Victoria and landholders Ken and Jill Hooper and supported by the Australian Land Conservation Alliance, Trust for Nature, the North Central Catchment Management Authority, Wetland Revival Trust and the Biodiversity Conservation Trust of NSW.

Fiona Murdoch from Land Covenantors Victoria said the day was an opportunity for covenantors from across the state to come together, share experiences and learn from each other.

“It was wonderful to meet so many inspiring individuals and to explore just one of the many incredible conservation properties that are a biodiverse legacy for future generations.”

“We know that well supported and connected landholders are the best advocates to encourage more people to protect and manage land for biodiversity. So this is the first of many LCV events to inspire this growing movement,” said Fiona.

The Victorian celebration follows a series of landholder forums coordinated by the Australian Land Conservation Alliance in NSW and South Australia. Nigel Jones representing ALCA said:

“Bringing together organisations and people who protect and manage private land for conservation is our main goal, and this event has done that beautifully. Starting with a Welcome to Country from Uncle Ricky Kirby, and finishing with a delicious lunch, there was ample time for landholders to meet, swap ideas and learn about each other’s conservation properties in different regions.”

In 2022, Australia joined 100 other countries in committing to protect 30% of our land and water by 2030. The rise of private land conservation forms a critical element to achieve this goal. In Victoria, protecting and managing private land for biodiversity already contributes around 75,000 hectares to our protected area network.

Land Covenantors Victoria was formed in 2021 as an independent, not-for-profit, member-driven organisation that supports and advocates for all Victorian landholders who have a conservation covenant on their land to protect biodiversity. Membership is free and both covenantors and “friends” can join (from our home page).

Understanding private land conservation in Victoria

Land Covenantors Victoria (LCV) President, Peter Mulherin, was one of a panel of speakers featured on a webinar hosted by the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) in collaboration with WWF-Australia.

The event was a great opportunity to introduce LCV and encourage landholders with conservation covenants to join as members.

Peter’s presentation starts around the 25 minute mark, but all the presentations combined provide a thorough explanation of the different types of agreements available to landholders wishing to protect and/or manage their land for conservation.

EDO has also created a comprehensive document “A guide to private land conservation for landholders” with Victorian options starting on page 54.

Victorian Government commits $31M to BushBank scheme

Victoria to restore area five times size of Melbourne with $31m boost to private land conservation

The Guardian, 4 April, 2022

The Victorian Government has announced a $31M boost to increase conservation on private land.

The new BushBank scheme, introduced by the State’s Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, will see large parcels of land regenerated to provide habitat for endangered flora and fauna and increase awareness of the role that private land conservation can play in Victoria’s broader biodiversity and sustainability efforts.

Making the case for nature

The Australia Land Conservation Alliance Makes the Case for Increasing Voluntary Permanently Protected Land to 5% by 2030

By Cecilia Riebl, Trust for Nature Policy Advisor and ILCN Regional Representative for Australasia, March 2022

Last year, governments around the world recognised the inherent value of nature conservation, with over 70 countries, including Australia, joining the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People – an intergovernmental group with the central goal of protecting at least 30 per cent of the world’s land and oceans by 2030.