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GRASSROOTS INPUT TO ENVIRONMENTAL DEBATES

Sustaining Natural Resources in the Kimberley

Community Feedback Form
(September 2004)

Over the next 12 months, everyone in the Kimberley will have the opportunity to have input into the development of a Kimberley Natural Resource Management Strategy. The Strategy will provide the basis for funding through the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) and other sources.

The first phase in the development of the plan is to identify what it is that we want to protect in the Kimberley. What threatens what we value? What do we want the region to look like in 50 years?

This feedback form provides the opportunity for everyone to have a say in managing natural resources in the Kimberley.

Your vision for the Kimberley

What do you value in the Kimberley? What would you like to protect?
(e.g. Safe and enjoyable drinking water, native plant and animal species diversity, productive pastures)

What are the possible threats that either do or could impact of what you value? (e.g. Cane toads, introduced weeds, wind erosion, over fishing)

We view all threats to our values and therefore to the way of life as we would have it in the Kimberley to be primarily of social origin:

What do you want the region to look like in 50 years time? (e.g. Sustainable agriculture, healthy rivers, feral animals under control)

This implies appropriate incentives and rewards accompanied by according proactively conceived legislation to encourage:

How do you think this could be achieved? What actions need to be taken for this to be achieved? (eg. Recovery plans to be developed for all endangered species)

Follow this up by designing policies and guide-lines that:

Other comments and ideas

Kachana Pastoral Company has in the past tabled comments on ecological issues; these can be viewed here.

In the face of the many challenges we will hand on to those who come after us, it is worth noting that a large number of these result directly from human failings and ignorance in the distant past, in the more recent past and in present times. Poor to fundamentally flawed policies, legislation and court rulings have now all but denied us a vision of what this region could still offer. We therefore welcome the notion of community input to issues as important as NRM. We hope that the result will be an ongoing commitment to learning to deal with the complex and dynamic challenges that face us rather than a political document that bears no recognition of, or respect for natural law and the processes that are fundamental to supporting life on this planet.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment!

Chris Henggeler for Kachana Pastoral Company, 24.09.2004