Nature restoration charity Landcare will have its funding doubled under a future NSW Labor government to address what the party says is more than a decade of decline.
The opposition has committed to more than doubling funding for Landcare to $59 million across the next four years, allowing the organisation to expand and continue its work rehabilitating the state’s natural environment.
Following unprecedented flooding and bushfires and escalating land clearing, ecosystems in NSW are suffering, Labor environment spokeswoman Penny Sharpe told AAP.
“Landcare is one of the best ways to restore nature that we desperately need in NSW after more than a decade of environmental decline,” she said.
Landcare’s previous funding round of $24 million, granted by the Berejiklian government in 2019, is due to expire at the end of June, Landcare CEO Turlough Guerin told AAP.
Established 34 years ago, the not-for-profit body looks after bush care management for nearly two-thirds of NSW.
The funds will allow the organisation to support 84 full-time coordinators, mostly in regional areas, to work with Landcare’s 60,000 volunteers and 3000 local groups, including Landcare, Bushcare, Rivercare and Dunecare.
The funding, which only comes into effect if Labor wins the March 25 state election, will also allow Landcare to employ 13 full-time Indigenous Landcare officers.
AAP
