Empowering landholders to protect their properties with Trust for Nature Conservation Covenants
There is ongoing interest from landholders wanting to protect their properties. Conservation Covenants are used to protect private land in perpetuity. These are a legally-binding agreement placed on a property’s title to ensure native vegetation is protected forever. This agreement is voluntary and negotiated between Trust for Nature and each individual landowner.
The Port Phillip and Western Port region, including Melbourne and the surrounding landscapes, has the most covenants of any region in the State of Victoria. This project would service the requests from landholders to continue this process of protecting our most important threatened species and communities.
Each landholder will receive a management plan and on going stewardship visits to help maintain the sites conservation values.
Themes and Local Areas
| Primary Theme: | Native Vegetation |
| Other Themes: | Native Animals, Waterways, Wetlands, Land Use, Sustainable Agriculture, Coasts, Communities, Climate Change |
| Primary Local Area: | All Local Areas |
| Other Local Areas: | |
| Project location: | The project would service landholders from all over the region |
| Scale of the project: | Landscape |
| New or continuing work: | Continuing/building on previous work |
Project partners
| Lead organisation: | Trust for Nature |
| Key partners: | Landcare, Parks Victoria, Zoos Victoria, Melbourne Water, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) |
| Registered Aboriginal Party/s relevant to the project or its area: | Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation |
Investment opportunities
| Opportunities for investors within this project start from: | $$$ (Hundreds of thousands of dollars) |
| Estimated scale of investment for full project implementation: | $$$ (Hundreds of thousands of dollars) |
| Estimated timeframe for full project implementation: | 2-10 years |
Contribution toward targets
| Primary Regional Catchment Strategy targets and contribution to its achievement: | Permanent protection – At least 8,250 hectares of new permanently protected vegetation areas established on private land in this region between 2017 and 2050 (an average of at least 250 hectares per year). This project will significantly contribute to the 250 hectares per year as outlined by strategy targets. |
| Relevant Biodiversity 2037 goal: | Create new areas of permanently protected native vegetation on private land |
| Relevant National Landcare Program priority: | Soil/biodiversity – Projects that will protect and enhance on-farm remnant native vegetation |
