New Futures for Victorian Landcare

The New Futures for Victorian Landcare Project (New Futures) is a pilot project designed to support landscape planning and the participation of the landcare community in emerging investment and environmental markets. In 2022, Landcare Victoria brought together a range of partners to develop the pilot project. Partners included Landscape Finance Lab, Regen Farmers Mutual, ANU Sustainable Farms Program and the Natural Resources Conservation Trust. The project was funded by the Ian Potter Foundation, the Natural Resources Conservation Trust and Landcare Victoria.

Landscape Action Plan Handbook published

Landcare Victoria is proud to present the Landscape Action Plan Handbook. The Handbook is a culmination of the three-year New Futures for Victorian Landcare Project, led by Landcare Victoria beside our dedicated project partners.

The Landscape Action Plan Handbook presents the key principles and steps that landcare organisations can undertake to develop a Landscape Action Plan for their area. It draws on international and national frameworks, expert knowledge and learnings from the pilot project, to present a best practice approach to support leadership, partnership development, and tailor local landscape outputs.

Bringing together the methodologies of our partners, we iterated with four pilot landscapes to find a way of working that is highly aligned to the integrated, community focused philosophies of landcare, while addressing the key challenges of our times. For more information and resources to assist you on your Landscape Action Plan journey, visit the Resources page of our website.

We held an online launch event for the Landscape Action Plan Handbook on 1 April. You can watch the recording now on our YouTube channel. 

Project Delivery

In 2023, the project partners came together to develop a pilot landscape action planning methodology. The methodology aims to build the capacity of landcare networks to work at a landscape scale and integrates elements of the 4 Returns Framework for Landscape Restoration, the Regen Farmers Mutual Landscape Impact Program and landcare’s self-organising community and grassroots leadership approach.

These pilot landscapes undertook a planning and stakeholder engagement process over nine months to develop a Landscape Action Plan. The program included a series of stakeholder and planning workshops, training modules and farm assessments with Pilot 10 landholders in their area, to explore individual opportunities and inform development of broader landscape opportunities.

Each landscape was led by a local Working Group, supported by a Landscape Coordinator and Workshop Facilitator, with expert input from project partners and local stakeholders. The project partners refined the methodology based on feedback between 2024 and 2025, to tailor the program to suit the emerging needs of landcare.

The project engaged over 1300 people throughout, including 100s across the four pilots who delivered four co-designed Landscape Action Plans, covering 1.75 million hectares. The project evaluation included interviews with participants undertaken by ANU Sustainable Farms, which have helped inform the handbook.

Funding Partners

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.

Project Partners

Regen Farmers Mutual

Regen Farmers Mutual (RFM) helps farmers create value from their environmental assets. Our role is to assist our members through education and training, opportunity definition, negotiating with prospective buyers, simplifying transaction execution, and thereafter supporting the delivery of environmental outcomes.

Landscape Finance Lab

The Landscape Finance Lab supports practitioners and investors to structure, launch and finance deals at landscape scale. Landscape Finance Lab has a vision of co-creating 1000 sustainable landscapes for one billion people.

ANU Sustainable Farms

Sustainable Farms is a research and extension initiative based in the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University. Sustainable Farms has been undertaking long-term research studies on farms in the box-gum grassy woodlands of south-eastern Australia for over two decades, one of the largest long-term monitoring studies of its kind.

Natural Resources Conservation Trust

For over 75 years, the Natural Resources Conservation League (NRCL) has been actively promoting the sustainable management of Victoria’s natural resources. The NRCL has a long history of building the capacity of the Victorian community to actively participate in, and influence conservation and natural resource management issues. NRCL has recently established the Natural Resources Conservation Trust to invest in nature-based solutions, including carbon drawdown, that protect and enhance the natural environment. As well as contributing substantial funds to the New Futures project, the Trust is actively engaged in implementation.

Landscape Action Plans

Granite to Goulburn

Vision: A restored Granite to Goulburn landscape with healthy and functioning waterways, habitat and profitable agriculture systems all operating in harmony with healthy Country.

Buloke and Northern Grampians Landcare Network (Windharp Horizons)

Vision: Local communities and partners collaborating for resilient, biodiverse, and productive landscapes.

Craters to Coast

Vision: From the Craters to the Coast - a thriving and resilient region, sustained by agriculturally productive and biodiverse landscapes, and connected communities.

Kiewa Wodonga

Vision: To create an integrated landscape action and investment plan that unites rural and urban communities in protecting and enhancing the Kiewa Valley’s unique natural assets, agricultural economic viability, and cultural heritage.

Resources

Landscape Action Plan Handbook

The Landscape Action Plan Handbook presents the key principles and steps that landcare organisations can undertake to develop a Landscape Action Plan for their area.

New Futures webinar - learnings and opportunities

This webinar showcased the outcomes of the first two pilots undertaken in 2024 and learnings from the program to date. It also provides updated information on the proposed EOI process for Round 2 pilot landscapes selection in early 2025.

Demystifying Landscape Finance

Want to know more about landscape finance? This fact sheet explains how to build a portfolio of landscape investments, the different types of landscape financing and outlines some of the challenges and opportunities in the sector. Download the full fact sheet here.