Landscape Linkages across the Southern Desert Uplands
End of Dry 2006 through to End of Dry 2008
The Landscape linkages tender, a project which uses a tender based approach to reward land managers by paying them to maintain or improve country on their properties to keep it in good condition, providing benefits to land managers and the natural environment.
Landscape Linkages builds on a research project conducted in 2004-2005 funded by National Action Plan for Salinity and Water (NAPSWQ) to develop a conceptual design for a market based incentive bidding process to deliver landscape connection of good quality biodiversity habitat across the southern Desert Uplands. Landscape Linkages aims to protect remnant vegetation and protect areas of biodiversity significance in the Desert Uplands region. Land within the Linkage will be managed to maintain specified levels of condition and contribute towards biodiversity attributes and improved land condition. The project is being implemented through funding provided by Burdekin Dry Tropics (BDTNRM).
Participation by land managers in the Landscape Linkages tender has resulted in extensive areas of remnant vegetation being maintained or improved across the southern Desert Uplands area.
Landscape Linkages, which is currently in progress, has the following achievements:
- After three bidding rounds the Desert Uplands Committee (DUC) were able to fund fifteen two year management agreements to maintain or improve land conditions over 85,207 hectares of land, just over half of the total offered
- A high diversity of country was offered from open woodlands to range country with a variety of Endangered, Of Concern and Not of Concern vegetation types included in the areas.
Monitoring will involve reporting to DUC through completion of a project diary and site visits. Annual payments are dependent upon receipt of photographic evidence of good biodiversity condition (minimum pasture biomass level at end of dry).
For the outline evaluation main report visit: http://facultysite.cqu.edu.au/FCWViewer/getFile.do?id=7479
For information on birds that can be found in the Desert Uplands visit: www.birdata.com.au
To read Gay Crowley's (Tropical Savanahs CRC) Landscape Linkages article click here