The Landcare Groups in the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority region are trialling a planning model which could revolutionise how communities work together to care for our environment.

This short documentary film explores the impact of the Natural Resource Management (NRM) Planning Portal project from the perspectives of key users and researchers.

For nearly thirty years community volunteers in Landcare Groups have been looking after their local environment – cleaning up creeks and wetlands, managing weeds, erosion, salinity, looking after flora and fauna, generally caring about the health of their home.

Landcare Groups form their own local plans and priorities regarding weeds, water, soil health, pests and other categories, and apply for government, corporate or community funding to keep their work going. Together with the larger umbrella organisations the Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs), Landcare Groups form a vital part of the network of volunteer and institutional organisations taking care of the land, water and biodiversity of the regions.

The NRM Planning Portal, being piloted in the Corangamite CMA district, enables Landcare networks and their Catchment Management Authority partners to share information about past works and projects and to come up with joint priorities which have the best potential for funding. The Portal centres around the needs of Landcare Networks to develop a Local Catchment Plan and helps them do so by making lots of relevant planning information available to assist in identifying priorities (self determined, eg ‘weeds’, ‘pests’, ‘salinity’, ‘erosion’, for instance ) and presenting these visually on a map. These priorities can be compared with regional, state and national priorities to explore areas of intersection and best matches for funding.