As 2024 kicks off, so too do the first New Futures pilot landscapes. Landcare Victoria, along with Regen Farmers Mutual and ANU Sustainable Farms Initiative visited the Granite2Goulburn Group and Buloke & Northern Grampians Landcare Networks in February, to kick off their New Futures Landscape Planning processes.
The New Futures Project Partners met with local working group members and Landscape Coordinators to view the landscapes and collaborate on ways of working through the 9-month pilots.
Regen Farmers Mutual will be delivering a Landscape Impact Program for each landscape. The program is a structured and scalable approach that actively involves 10 pilot landholders in a region, exploring ways they can cultivate on-property environmental/economic benefits. The aim is to identify strategies that can deliver environmental and economic gains on the lands of participating farmers, that also contributes to landscape scale impacts.
ANU Sustainable Farms Initiative will be assisting in project evaluation and participatory action research to help document reflections and provide a conduit to ecological advice. Sustainable Farms has 20 years’ experience undertaking long-term research studies on farms in the box-gum grassy woodlands of south-eastern Australia and extension activities in Victorian landscapes. The Sustainable Farms team covers a range of fields including ecology, economics, spatial science and social sciences.
Additionally, Landscape Finance Lab will continue to provide advice to the New Futures Partnership Team and Landcare Victoria on landscape financing challenges, fundraising, opportunities, tools and resources. This includes provision of templates and supporting resources and reviewing landscape planning outputs/products to align with the 4 Returns Framework.
Landcare Victoria will keep the Victorian Landcare Community informed of the progress of both pilots as the program progresses throughout 2024.
Landcare Victoria and project partners are grateful for the funding support for this project from The Ian Potter Foundation and the Natural Resources Conservation Trust.