What is the Community Plan All About?

This Plan is about achieving sustainable use and management of natural resources in Townsville-Thuringowa. Natural resources include all types of physical resources (water, air, climate, soils and minerals) and biological resources (flora, fauna, agricultural produce, ecosystems and people). These resources are essential to our survival, well-being and quality of life. But their capacity to support human activity has limits.
Unfortunately natural resources all around the world are under pressure from the unstainable activities and demands of humans. It is imperative that we begin to use and manage natural resources in a sustainable way so that they will continue to support us and the generations to follow us.

Everyone who lives or works in Townsville-Thuringowa and every company, government or other organisation that operates here, is a user and a manager of the natural resources of the area. So, it is up to the whole community, every individual and every organisation, to ensure that our resources are not wasted, depleted or over-exploited.

Increased participation of the community in land, water and vegetation management, and environmental conservation is an effective way to change on-ground practices and guarantee that our natural resources are used in more sustainable ways. However, natural resource management is just as complex as it is important, so we need strategic direction - a Plan - to do the best job we can.

This Community Plan is a means for us to:

• Spell-out our intentions and objectives for the environment and communicate them in a constructive and positive way to politicians and government officers;
• Establish a framework for community action and involvement that addresses real priorities efficiently and effectively;
• Consolidate and optimise the resources available for community and government projects;
• Improve our communication and collaboration with government and industry in matters relating to land, water and biological resources; and
• Improve the co-ordination and co-operation of community, government and industry ventures.

How did this Community Plan Evolve?

In 1997 the Commonwealth Government released the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) for funding environmental projects by local communities all around Australia. In Queensland the Department of Natural Resources instigated a scheme to deliver NHT funding equitably to communities across the State to achieve the best on-ground outcomes. They divided the State into 13 regions and established Regional Strategy Groups to develop Regional Strategies in each region. Once endorsed by the Landcare and Catchment Management Council (LCMC), the Regional Strategies would be a framework for communities to access funds for natural resource management activities through the NHT.

Townsville-Thuringowa lies in the Burdekin Dry Tropics Region. This area covers approximately 95,000 square kilometres and includes Bowen, Ayr and Charters Towers. The Burdekin Dry Tropics Regional Strategy Group formed in 1998 to develop the Strategic Plan for the whole region. They soon recognised that the region is too large and diverse for one strategy, so they divided it into three distinct Sub-regions: Burdekin Rangelands, Burdekin-Bowen Floodplains and Townsville-Thuringowa Coastal Plains. It is at this sub-regional level that on-ground natural resource management activities take place, so Sub-regional Strategies were developed under the Regional Strategy. This Plan is the Sub-regional Strategy for the Townsville-Thuringowa Coastal Plains. The Sub-region coincides closely with the Townsville and Thuringowa local government areas, extending from the back of the coastal ranges to the Great Barrier Reef, south to the Haughton River and north to Crystal Creek.

Townsville-Thuringowa Landcare Association (TThLA) began preparing this Community Plan in 1998. A broad cross-section of the Townsville-Thuringowa community (including individuals and representatives of indigenous groups, community groups, government agencies and the commercial sector) was invited to participate in the project. Five Working Groups were established to identify, debate and work-shop the issues confronting natural resource management in Townsville-Thuringowa during much of 1999 and 2000 (see Appendix D for the participants of the Working Groups). The Working Groups were each responsible for one of the five subject areas contained in Sections 2 to 6 of this document. The diversity of the participants in the Working Groups is reflected in the wide variety of issues and points of view included in the Plan.

The findings of the Working Groups were then compiled into draft versions of the Community Plan. The community had further opportunities to contribute to the definition of the issues, goals and desired outcomes by commenting on drafts that were circulated in June 1999 and June 2000.

What does this Community Plan Contain?

This Plan aims to articulate the concerns and priorities of our community in Townsville-Thuringowa for protecting and managing local natural resources. The findings of the consultation process are presented in six Sections, which correspond to the key focus areas of the Working Groups, as follows:

Each of the six Sections begins with a broad overview of the relevant issues. This is followed by a series of Strategies for improving the management of specific types of natural resources. There are 31 Strategies in all, and each one is laid out on a single page with the following types of information:

• What are the issues?: A background discussion examines some of the short-comings in the way we currently manage and use the particular resource(s) under consideration.
• Why is this important?: A dot-point list of statements describes why the resources deserve protection.
• What can we do about it?: The goals for the Strategy are set.
• What can this strategy achieve?: The desired outcomes (achievements) for the Strategy are listed.
• Each desired outcome has been given a priority for its achievement. The process used for determining the priorities is explained in Appendix C. The number of stars preceding each desired outcome in the Strategies denotes its priority:
  • ::: Very high priority
  • :: High priority
  • : Medium priority

During the development of the Plan, the community also identified desired courses of action to improve our performance and achieve ecological sustainability. Action Plans corresponding to each Strategy have been prepared, following on from the desired outcomes listed in each Strategy. However, the Action Plans are more technical than this document, and they will require regular updating and modification as situations change. For these reasons, they are presented in a technical supplement to this Plan: Community Action Plans for Natural Resource Management in Townsville-Thuringowa. An example (Action Plan 1.1, corresponding to Strategy 1.1) is given in Appendix H. If you would like to know more about the Action Plans, please contact the Landcare Centre.

Summary of Key Priorities

• To secure commitment and participation in integrated catchment management of natural resources from all relevant interest-groups in Townsville-Thuringowa. Section 1
• To implement best-practice management for protecting native vegetation, controlling environmental weeds and maintaining habitat for native wildlife populations. Section 2
• To rehabilitate degraded areas, especially riparian areas and areas with high potential for soil erosion. Section 2
• To strengthen the role of local Landcare groups and other programs for promoting and supporting sustainable rural industries. Section 2
• To ensure protection of water quality and quantity for use by residents, the commercial sector and ecosystems, through integrated consultation, planning, management and monitoring. Section 3
• To encourage relevant agencies to develop a coastal zone management plan, and support community participation in the planning by providing appropriate participation opportunities and information and awareness activities. Section 4
• To progress the collaborative development of a long term plan for indigenous involvement in local natural resources management, in a spirit of reconciliation and of respect for traditional customs and legitimate Aboriginal aspirations. Section 4
• To encourage the local community and commercial sector to develop, implement and maintain best-practice standards in pollution control. Section 5
• To encourage support for clean production technologies to ensure ecological sustainability of industrial and urban activities. Section 5
• To raise the environmental understanding of our community and encourage informed debate and wider involvement in ecologically sustainable activities in Townsville-Thuringowa. Section 6

A Vision for Sustainability

This Community Plan is based upon the recognition of two complimentary aspects of caring for our local natural resources:

Achieving ecologically sustainable use of our land, water and biological resources. Societies need to use nature's resources, but there are ecological limits of the extent of which these resources can be exploited. We need to understand the consequences of our activities and manage them to ensure that long-term impacts will not compromise nature's capability for self-renewal and the ability of current and future generations to enjoy it.
Protecting nature irrespective of its functional values for human populations. Nature, in its various manifestations, has intrinsic values that we have a responsibility to respect and protect, even though they may seem of little use to us. The perpetuation of life on our planet depends upon these values.

National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development

This Community Plan acknowledges the goal, objectives and principles of the National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development (Australian Government 1992).

The goal is:

• Development that improves the total quality of life, both now and in the future, in a way that maintains the ecological processes on which life depends.

The core objectives are:

• To enhance individual and community well-being and welfare by following a path of economic development that safeguards the welfare of future generations;
• To provide for equity within and between generations;
• To protect biological diversity and maintain essential ecological processes and life-support systems.

The guiding principles are:

• Decision making processes should effectively integrate both long and short-term economic, environmental, social and equity considerations;
• Where there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation;
• The global dimension of environmental impacts of actions and policies should be recognised and considered;
• The need to develop a strong, growing and diversified economy which can enhance the capacity for environmental protection should be recognised;
• The need to maintain and enhance international competitiveness in an environmentally sound manner should be recognised;
• Cost effective and flexible policy instruments should be adopted, such as improved valuation pricing and incentive measures;
• Decisions and actions should provide for broad community involvement on issues which affect them.

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