Enrich Habitats for Life - Landholder Engagement

Specifications

• Client: Condamine Alliance
• Scope:

  The project aims to engage regional landholders in target areas, and establish collaborative working relationships to reduce weed cover, revegetate or protect native vegetation, and increase native vegetation cover to 20 to 30%. Verterra has taken a respectful, inclusive approach to landholder engagement, combined with targeted, novel application of combined mechanical (mulching) and biological treatment for noxious weed control (significantly reducing herbicide usage while enhancing soil organic carbon), combined with management to facilitate release of natural regeneration and targeted revegetation.

• Challenge:

  Many areas of the upper Condamine catchment have been over-cleared, leading to soil and land degradation, weed infestation, impacts on regional biodiversity, water quality and agricultural production. With the aim of reducing weed cover and increasing native vegetation cover to 20 to 30%, the project faced two key challenges:

  1. Engaging landholders to actively participate;
  2. Cost-effective approaches to managing weeds and increasing native vegetation cover.

  Prickly pear, Box thorn and Lantana present the main weed infestation issues.

• Solution:

  By bringing the approach of sincere, sound knowledge put simply, Verterra was successful in engaging landholders that had previously been unwilling to participate in the program, and bring over 4,400 ha into the program. In addition, by bringing a sound understanding of ecology and practical approach to vegetation management, Verterra has been able to deliver project outcomes on quadruple the area for that same cost as prior work.

• Benefit to Client:

  As a regional NRM manager, Verterra’s contribution enabled successful engagement of landholders and cost-effective weed control and vegetation management approaches have enabled the client to deliver on their charter to improve catchment health for the benefit of both landholders and the environment.

• Market Sector: Environment and Natural Resources
• Capabilities:
  • Property management planning
  • Land access arrangements and stakeholder engagement
  • Vegetation and weed management
• Location: Queensland
• Year: 2013 - 2016