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The National Rangeland NRM Alliance (The Alliance) is a collaboration of 14 rangelands natural resource management bodies operating across 81 per cent of Australia’s landmass. The group works together and with partners to gain traction where individually they often have little. While, it can seem confusing to have Cape York and Western NSW in one group, the members have found that the basic issues for NRM are the same. Of course, it is vital that on-ground delivery is adjusted for local environments.

 

The Alliance together with industry, agencies and communities have produced the Australian

Rangelands Initiative to provide guidance for the long term investment in the management of the

natural resources of the rangelands of Australia. This aims to overcome issues of the changing focus of government funding programs.

 

The Alliance has been particularly active over the past 5 years in responding, and providing input, to

Government policy and programs for natural resource management. The aim is to have the

rangelands recognised as a significantly different operating environment and deserving of appropriate alternative policy and funding approaches.

 

The Alliance has begun a process of investigating alternative investment models and how policy

adjustments may be able to overcome some of the pitfalls of short term funding in an environment

where change occurs across large areas over long time frames, often interrupted by large climatic

variability. It is these options which the Alliance wishes to introduce and discuss with the ARS

Conference audience in April 2015.