Everyone’s responsibility: Council seeks community feedback on strategy to protect local biodiversity

Published: 18 Jun 2020 11:00am

Wagga Wagga City Council is seeking community feedback on a draft strategy outlining a 10-year plan to address key threats and impacts on local biodiversity.

The draft Biodiversity Strategy: Maldhangilanna aims to increase community awareness of the importance of biodiversity, strategically approaching the challenge of preserving, protecting, and enhancing local biodiversity into the future.

Council’s Community Director Janice Summerhayes said biodiversity was everyone’s responsibility.

“Biodiversity is important because it supports the healthy functioning of the environment we depend upon for water, food, health and recreation,” Ms Summerhayes said.

“Over 90 per cent of the original vegetation in the Wagga Wagga Local Government Area has been cleared and the remaining 10 per cent exists in isolated pockets.

“Key threatening processes are placing native plants and animals under pressure. Some of these processes include fragmentation, infestation of pest animals and weeds, habitat loss or change, and climate change.

“‘Maldhangilanna’ is Wiradjuri for working together. Our draft biodiversity strategy focuses on what we can do to halt the decline of biodiversity in our region, and how we can work together as a community for a healthier and sustainable future.”

The draft strategy has four main focus areas, with strategic objectives and underlying actions for the areas of:

• Planning for Biodiversity
• Strengthening Natural Assets
• Managing Biosecurity
• Educating and Collaborating

The Biodiversity Strategy: Maldhangilanna is on public exhibition until Monday 13 July 2020.

To view the strategy, visit connect.wagga.nsw.gov.au/biodiversity

The draft Biodiversity Strategy: Maldhangilanna is a 10-year document outlining the legislative framework associated with biodiversity conservation, internal and external policy context, key threatening processes, and threatened species within the Wagga Wagga Local Government Area. The draft strategy has been developed through extensive community consultation and supports the vision and objectives expressed in the Community Strategic Plan.