INNOVATIVE INTERSTATE AND NATIONAL PROGRAMS

Earth Sanctuaries

As was noted in Chapter 5, the Committee visited the Warrawong Sanctuary in the Adelaide Hills during its study tour to South Australia and met with a number of directors of the company that runs the property. While the focus of the company is on the protection of small ground-dwelling mammals, especially those that are rare or endangered in their natural habitat, in recent years it has purchased larger properties where the management emphasis includes the maintenance or restoration of the whole habitat of the ecosystem. As was noted in Chapter 5, the company is "committed to saving Australia's vanishing wildlife ... in the wild, together with the whole ecosystem necessary for its survival".²²

The company now owns and operates a total of 90,000 hectares. All properties are fenced to provide an environment free of feral animals.

The sanctuaries are financed by a growing number of shareholders in the Earth Sanctuaries company group, in addition to admission and guided-tour fees, sale of souvenirs and other items, and donations. It currently has about 2,500 shareholders, with the most recent prospectus raising some $1.8 million. Its 1998 operating profit was $159,742. The company has four main activities. In summary:

a) it invests in individual Earth Sanctuaries (each sanctuary operates under a separate company structure);

b) it develops sanctuaries by providing services and advice;

c) it manages the subsidiary Earth Sanctuaries; and

d) it runs the tourism business associated with the sanctuaries. ²³

As was noted in Chapter 5, the company is developing an `Earth Sanctuary' in Victoria.²⁴

Australian Bush Heritage Fund

The Australian Bush Heritage Trust is a comparatively recently initiated program. It is a "national, independent, non-profit organisation committed to the protection of the Australian bush,"²⁵ and is run by a private non-profit company. It uses public donations to acquire lands that it then manages for nature-conservation purposes.

It currently has land holdings of 1,840 hectares. Although the Trust currently does not own any land in Victoria, it is investigating potential sites for purchase.²⁶

Game Management Plans

The game management plan approach has been used in northern Tasmania, where it has successfully addressed a number of problems associated with recreational hunting - illegal hunting, access issues for landowners, and poor pest control results.

Game management plans are also being developed in western NSW in response to increased numbers of large kangaroos, which are regarded by landholders as a threat to their agricultural enterprises. Early in 1999 a community group in NSW, representing eight properties (716,000 hectares) drew up a Property Based Wildlife Management Plan. This provides for individual hunters to contract with landholders for access and hunting rights. In this case the desired species to be hunted are feral pigs and goats. Hunters may remove these animals. At the same time, in return for access to pigs and goats as game, they must shoot kangaroos on a kill-and-let-lie basis, and other feral pests. This arrangement removes reliance by landholders on commercial shooting, which has proved inadequate for population management. Landholders can charge a fee or barter access for pest control in return for access to hunting.

Issues

Of the programs above, the Earth Sanctuary approach is the only program that offers both habitat protection and active utilisation. The Game Management Plans provide an interesting mechanism for joint management of wildlife, but are driven by a requirement for pest control and have no direct habitat protection outcome.

FINANCIAL INCENTIVE PROGRAMS

Rate Rebates

In recent years the use of rate rebates to private landowners who protect bushland areas on their property has been suggested. One such program commenced by the Shire of Wellington offers a rate rebate to private landowners who have a Trust for Nature covenant (see above) on all or part of their land.

Tax Deductibility

The Australian Bush Heritage Fund advocated tax deductibility for all land donated to approved conservation organisations (at the time the federal Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 provided for tax deductibility, but with severe restrictions).²⁷ The Committee understands that the Federal Government has recently foreshadowed an amendment to this Act to remove those restrictions that have created an impediment to land donation. The Fund also advocates that land donated be available for sale to raise funds for the purchase of other more-valuable land, without losing its tax deductibility status. The Committee notes that this practice, also known as a revolving fund, is available in Victoria under the Victorian Conservation Act 1972, albeit only for those properties donated to the Trust for Nature program.

Issues

Financial incentive schemes are not well developed nor well known or actively advocated.