Regional Recovery - Landscape Resilience Project: building climate change resilience across Cape York Peninsula

This project is funded by the Queensland Government's Natural Resources Recovery Program. This program has invested over $11 million over 2 years across Queensland. The Resource Recovery program funded projects that support improved landscape resilience and ability to respond to natural disasters and climate change, adoption of sustainable practices, and improved monitoring and evaluation to understand the state of our natural resources.

Healthy vegetation and pastures are an important aspect of drought resilience. Having the right infrastructure and resources to effectively manage grazing landscapes is particularly important to maintain and improve the condition of the landscape. Without managing grazing pressure and reducing threats to native vegetation, the landscape, and businesses that rely on them, become increasingly vulnerable to climate variability. Importantly, land managers must be able to identify their priorities to achieving resilience in the grazing landscape. 

Part of this process involves understanding where there are shortfalls in current systems. Using farm business resilience planning tools is a quick way to determine if a business is where it needs, and wants to be, and where investment is most needed. 

This project supports grazing land managers to deliver on-ground activities that improve the condition of the land and native vegetation. 

Grazing land managers are invited to submit and expression of interest for projects up to the value of $30,000. Types of activities considered for funding include: 

• Control of priority weed infestations (e.g. rubber vine, parkinsonia, bellyache bush or other priority weeds identified in the relevant regional biosecurity plan)
• Protecting riparian vegetation from cattle and/or pigs (fencing creeks/rivers)
• Additional paddock fencing to allow for spelling
• Additional off-stream watering points to spread grazing pressure

These activities will be funded for delivery from March 2023, and be completed by 30 June 2024. A minimum of six projects--three addressing threats to vegetation condition, and three addressing land condition--will be funded. 

All activities will be monitored by Cape York NRM project staff using tools from the Statewide Indicator Framework. These monitoring tools will assess the condition of the land and/or vegetation, prior to activities commence and at the completion of the work. 

Grazing land managers will also participate in a gap analysis to help identify where the barriers to resilience are, and how Cape York NRM can better support the grazing industry on Cape York Peninsula to be prepared for climate extremes.

These activities will help to deliver three program outcomes:

1. By June 2024, land condition has improved across 1000 hectares
2. By June 2024, vegetation condition has improved across 1500 hectares
3. By June 2023, six land managers have participated in the gap analysis to identify threats to future landscape resilience.