Task Force Green Infrastructure. The real purpose.

Getting funding is more than applying for dollars and then fullfilling the job. It is also about getting maximum and sutainable outcome.

TM Landcare should only do public land regeneration work in areas that are accepted by the government and governmental bodies as 'preserved'. Too often, Landcare groups around the country would undertake big jobs in replanting, but after a council or government change the areas were re-assessed and later judged suitable for development, farming or recreation.  That is one of the reasons for co-operation with the TM Rainforest Trust, and also a reason behind the Task Force.

Our Landcare group has grown a lot, both in acquired funding and in number and size of projects.

To make sure that we don't waste our efforts we formulated three conditions for new projects:

- a project plan has to be established and accepted (by TM Landcare and other stakeholders)

- a project co-ordinator is found

- enough funding is available for the start up and continuation of the project.

To make sure that council, state and federal governmental bodies fully support the Landcare projects (both new and existing) the Task Force Green Infrastructure Tamborine Mountain was established in 2006.

For funding bodies, governments and councils, working with volunteer organisations has its own challenges: groups come and go, grow and shrink, and are managed well or poorly. For our Landcare group on the other hand, bureaucracy really can be a hurdle. Four times per year representitives of Landcare, CVA (our major supplier of labour), National Parks, the Scenic Rime Regional Council, TM Rainforest Trust and SEQ Catchments (federal funding body) meet and discuss the actual rainforest projects on the mountain, and possible future projects and corridors. Contributions of those bodies to our projects is on the agenda.

So far, outcomes of the task Force meetings are (among others) the mapping project and Green Domain: the information service for private landholders. It is very likely that the Task Force helps in securing funding. The defintion of corridors on the mountain has also very much been supported by the Task Force.

The Task Force is a unique body, because as far as we know, for no other environmental sensitive areas a body like this has been established.

It is a great platform to solve issues, avoid problems in the future and develop new plans with all major stakeholders. It increases our own influence as a community group on decisions regarding environmental conservation.

Successful and sustainable rainforest regeneration requires cooperation between all stakeholders. That is exactly what the Task Force delivers.

Songbirds Rainforest Retreat hosts the meetings for free, providing morning tea and coffee and a great venue, as gesture for the appreciated work of TM Landcare.

Jaap Vogel