Due to its outstanding biodiversity conservation leadership, Crows Nest Shire Council has been chosen as host for the 2001 Southern Queensland Biodiversity Recovery Conference.Organised by the Southern Queensland Biodiversity Network, the conference will be held at the Lake Perserverance Recreation Centre north of Toowoomba from 29 October to 2 November 2001.
Crows Nest is the first inland rural Local Government in Queensland to introduce an environmental rates contribution. This is used to provide rate relief to landholders, and fund a small grants program for the purpose of conservation management.
Crows Nest and Kingaroy Shire Councils are implementing best practice programs to prevent biodiversity losses caused through Council activities such as road maintenance. The Southern Queensland Biodiversity Network encourages and assists conservation of the rich biological diversity of the area through sharing knowledge, promoting understanding and fostering innovation.
The Network holds an annual conference, hosted in different locations each year by recognised biodiversity leaders. The Network’s vision for biodiversity is, ‘By the year 2050, the whole community is working together to sustain biodiversity, by sharing knowledge, respect, commitment and responsibility’.
The conference theme is Biodiversity – The Big Picture. It will look at a number of issues concerning biodiversity, ranging from sustainability and management, social and cultural aspects of biodiversity to financing and marketing biodiversity. A feature will be a practical workshop – ‘Things that go bump in the night’. It will include a night spotting walk.
A highlight will be a special guest presentation by Carl Binning from CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems. He will speak about CSIRO’s major new initiative in developing markets for ecosystems. Developing markets for ecosystem services means that landholders can be paid for using good ecosystem management.
Carl Binning is well known for his role in a national vegetation research and development program that produced the indispensable best practice, Local Government resource ‘Beyond Roads, Rates and Rubbish – Opportunities for Local Government to conserve remnant vegetation’.
For further information contact Bruce Boyes, Natural Resource Manager, or Nigel Kimball, Natural Resource Management Project Assistant on (07) 4698 1155.
