Local conservation group Biolinks Alliance has secured a $495,000 three-year grant from The Ian Potter Foundation to support connection and conservation of central Victorian landscapes and species.
Biolinks executive director Sophie Bickford said she was thrilled to receive the funding, which came at a critical time for central Victorian species.
Some local species were among the 124 new Australian species added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s endangered species list in its December 2021 biannual update.
“We’re thrilled that the Potter Foundation shares our vision for the central Victorian landscape and for species like the grey-headed flying fox (found in Bendigo’s Rosalind Park),” Ms Bickford said.
“This funding will result in ecosystem repair – soils that absorb rainfall, rivers that offer clean, reliable water flow for platypus to dive and forage, healthy banksia and wattle where sugar gliders leap as they pass through, liberated from the impacts of human boundaries.
“And all this will be delivered, with our help, by the environmental stewards who know these landscapes better than anyone – First Nations people, farmers, landholders, conservation groups and volunteer organisations.”
Ms Bickford said the funding would help to grow Biolinks Alliance’s organisational capacity, building on the gains it had made since it was formed in 2010.
“Conservation approaches that truly engage local communities are the most effective conservation strategies available to us, and yet they are chronically underfunded,” she said.
The funding comes amid criticism of the Victorian Government, sparked in part by the inquiry into ecosystem decline in Victoria, late last year, which found that immediate action is required to halt the decline of species through 74 recommendations.
Many of these recommendations align with Biolinks’ unique strategies to work collaboratively with local groups towards ecosystem recovery.
Bickford said the inquiry recognised that local communities needed more support to halt the loss of precious central Victorian species like the swift parrot.
“We recognise that the unique offerings of local communities need to be supported by trusting, two-way conversations; by funding, science and networks,” she said.
“The solutions are out there to be found however they require urgent leadership, a culture of shared stewardship and working together in ways we haven’t before. The Alliance is honoured to receive the funding and is extremely appreciative of The Ian Potter Foundation’s generous and strategic philanthropy.”
The Ian Potter Foundation described the funding as recognition of the critical need to “fund new specialist collaborative organisations that operate at the coal-face to bridge the efforts of private land managers with other key stakeholders”.
