In May 2020 the WA Landcare Network joined an Australia wide alliance of 70 conservation organisations to prepare a large conservation stimulus package proposal to the Federal government. The proposal recommended the establishment of 1000s of landcare jobs in the conservation sector to help rebuild the economy post COVID 19 and help restore and rebuild natural landscapes and communities.
The alliance led by the Pew Foundation has recently commissioned a report by Ernst Young on the economic impact of the conservation stimulus package and its potential to assist with economic recovery post COVID 19.
The report found that a $4 billion national program spend would generate 53,000 jobs, reduce welfare costs by $620 million and raise economic output by $5.7 billion over the next four years – with economic gains rising to $9.3 billion over the next 20 years. It said many of the communities hardest hit by coronavirus were in regional areas and suffering from loss of tourism.
Read the Ernst Young Report at the links below –
WALN Media Statement
On Thursday 2 July WA Landcare Chair, Mick Davis release the following statement on the conservation stimulus package.
The WA Landcare Network is one of the more than 70 landcare, farming and conservation organisations calling for a stimulus package that includes land, water and coastal restoration works and recovery post fires, droughts and floods.
“We included an ambition suggested package for fencing, planting, weed and feral animal control, regenerative agriculture establishment, repair of damage post fire and drought as well as basic assessment of current condition to know the scale of recovery tasks” said WALN chair Mick Davis.
“As the peak organisation for community landcare in WA, the WA Landcare Network has been speaking regularly to community landcare groups throughout the Covid 19 restrictions and there has been deep concern about not being able to get on with both planed restoration works and recovery post the fires and droughts. The scale of the work needed to be done is bigger than people realise. There was a lot of coverage, and rightly so, about the eastern states fires, but we also had a lot of severe fires with 600,000ha in the Great Western Woodlands near the goldfields and half of the Stirling Ranges burnt. There are double digit local governments also affected by drought and dry conditions.”
The good thing about Landcare and conservation is that there is an existing network of 700 community groups across WA ready to get activated to support work on the ground and this means stimulus investment can hit the ground and make a difference immediately. Another feature of the sector is that there are jobs for different levels of skills with the majority being manual skills through to specialist skills.
The finding in the Ernst and Young report commissioned by the alliance putting forward the environment stimulus package indicated that rural and regional communities have been hard hit by Covid 19 and need attention through specific stimulus investment.
The report found that a $4 billion national program spend would generate 53,000 jobs, reduce welfare costs by $620 million and raise economic output by $5.7 billion over the next four years – with economic gains rising to $9.3 billion over the next 20 years.
A $2 billion program was estimated to increase jobs by 31,000 jobs and boost economic output by $4.7 billion, while a $500 million program would create 8,000 jobs and boost economic output by $1.2 billion.
“Investment in landcare and conservation restoration and regeneration is incredibly positive for whole communities, for the mental health of those involved and contributes to building up communities and our environment at the same time.” said Mr Davis.