People Working Together – Landcare in South Australia

“Wetland restoration – thinking outside the square” Mark is based in Mount Gambier and is working in both South Australia and Victoria, on a wide range of on-ground conservation initiatives, including a particular emphasis on wetland restoration, conservation and management.

“Winning grant funding -Holy Grail or Poison Chalice” Sean and Sue Delaney own and operate Sinclair’s Gully winery in Norton Summit. Multi award winning business in sustainability, ecotourism, landcare and primary production. Their involvement in a regional grass roots community landcare programme will lead us on exploration of the challenges, success and learnings from this project.

Chairman BirdLife Australia Gluepot Reserve “Miracles Do Happen – the Story of Gluepot Reserve”. Gluepot Reserve is managed and operated entirely by volunteers – there are no paid staff. The Reserves’ most critical ‘investment’ has been (and always will be) in its volunteers. They are the ‘steel threads that bind together the fabric of the Reserve’. Through our volunteers, we have built strong communication links within the wider community, and this is highlighted by the fact that our volunteers donated 37,474 hours to Gluepot during 2012.

For more than twenty years, theAPY Lahas helped Anangu to care for their traditional lands and reduce the impact of feral animals and weeds. Doug, formerly the CEO of Bush Heritage will discuss the important work that is being undertaken by the community Caring For Country.

Hill “Mullet, Management and MSC” Tracy, currently the Secretary of the Southern Fishermen’s Association, which represents Lakes and Coorong commercial fishers, will give an overview of the Lakes and Coorong Fishery’s journey to MSC certification and the implications this has on the management of the fishery.

Co-founder EcoProTem – “Considering the lilies – Carbon in the Abbott era”. Faith will discuss some potential ways for organisations to future-proof their district’s biodiversity outcomes through voluntary carbon credit generation, improving awareness of integrated pest management and engaging with a wider range of stakeholders.

“Are Volunteers Risky Business?”Christel will provide a ‘dummies guide’ to the new Work Health and Safety Bill 2011, compare the support offered to volunteers across jurisdictions and explore the many challenges facing community groups in keeping their volunteers safe.

“Social Media in Agriculture” The range of social media platforms has increased exponentially over recent years, however the most popular platforms used in Australia are Facebook and You Tube. The use of social media in agriculture is increasing as people become familiar with the technology and are more confident in using the array of platforms that are available. Short You Tube style videos can be simple to make and if planned well can tell a good story. This has one of the main features of the Ag Ex Social Media in Agriculture project, where over 80 short videos have been produced with farming groups, NRM organisations and R&D organisations over the past 20 months.

One of the ways to promote and increase cultural and spiritual connections with country is by assisting local aboriginal people to reconnect with country by providing both financial and technical assistance to labour hire organisations – such as Port Lincoln Aboriginal Community Council in Port Lincoln and Tjutjunaka Worka Tjuta Inc. in Ceduna – to undertake environmental management projects.

“Restoring habitat for threatened plants on Kangaroo Island”. Over the past decade the Kangaroo Island Nationally Threatened Plant Project (KINTPP) has systematically addressed the challenges, to come up with solutions. This presentation looks at the methodologies and principles applied by the KINTPP in an effort to restore threatened plant habitat in the heavily fragmented landscape of eastern Kangaroo Island.

“Adoption of biologically driven IPM – a success story in promoting sustainable farming practices” This presentation focuses on the greenhouse or protected cropping industry on the Northern Adelaide Plains which is composed of over 1,000 individual enterprises that are not organised within any industry structure and have no dedicated technical or other support. The challenge undertaken was to create an ‘adoptable alternative’ to ineffective and unsustainable pesticide use to control greenhouse pests amongst an industry group that was burdened by a range of unsustainable farming practices.

Dr KatjaHogendoorn, University of Adelaide “Enhancing native bees for ecosystem services” Bees are important pollinators of both native plants and crops and feral honeybees are responsible for a large part of crop pollination in Australia. An incursion of the Varroa mite will decimate these services and lead to a pollination deficit of many pollination dependent fruit and vegetables.To pre-empt these foreseen effects, free pollination by native bees should be enhanced. Methods to achieve this include provision in the crop area of nesting opportunities and complementary nutrition for native pollinators.

A Catalyst for Large-scale, Collaborative Landscape Projects in South Australia” In recent years, a number of high-profile, large-scale, collaborative landscape conservation initiatives have emerged across Australia. Nationally, these include projects such GondwanaLink, Great Eastern Ranges, Habitat 141 and the Tasmanian MidLands project. In South Australia, NatureLinks has provided the state-wide policy framework for the development of local landscape projects such as WildEyre and Living Flinders.The planning tool, Conservation Action Planning (CAP) developed by The Nature Conservancy, has been used here and in over a 1,000 projects worldwide.