the region
MAKE A COMMENT
vision
The vision for the Corangamite Region, developed through consultation with the community, and reflected in the Regional Catchment Strategy (RCS) Goals is:
1.1 a healthy environment
By 2020, the health of the environment will be improving in each landscape, including the marine environment, of the Region.
On most dimensions, environmental health continues to decline, as it has for the last 150 years. Growth of residential areas, tourism and the intensification of agriculture means that over the next 20 years, human activity will make even more demands on natural resources. Many of the threats the Region faces will intensify.
The goal is to improve the health of all regional landscapes by 2020 – in rural areas, in cities and towns and in conservation areas. Healthy environments have good quality air, water, and soil, and viable ecosystems to maintain these.
This will not be easy, and the choices to be faced are difficult ones. Where should government invest to improve environmental health? How can demands for higher living standards, from rising population, be reconciled with high expectations for environmental health? What specific targets are achievable, given the trends in condition? What limits and costs should be imposed on businesses to protect environmental health?
Answers will emerge from the passion, intelligence and action of those who care about a sustainable future. The frameworks and policy commitments at National, State and Regional levels set out many of the issues that need attention. These need to be translated into each landscape of the Region, so that each has a plan with clear targets for environmental health, balanced with economic, environmental and social aspirations.
1.2 sustainable economic use of natural resources
By 2020, all enterprises will use resources in a way that maintains ecological processes.
The natural environment of the Corangamite Region is productive and abundant, but it has its limits. To be sustainable, economic use of natural resources should respect these limits and work with, rather than against natural processes. In their own economic interests, all enterprises should weigh up long-term economic benefits and costs, and choose those practices that sustain their natural asset base thus enabling them to maintain long-term profitability. There must, however, be a realisation that broad scale sustainable economic use of the Region's natural resources is the responsibility of the whole community.
This goal hinges on the community's acceptance of an ethic of environmental responsibility, parallelling a capacity to innovate. Profitability and sustainability are not mutually exclusive: innovation guided by an ethic of responsibility can achieve both.
1.3 a smaller footprint
By 2020, communities, enterprises and individuals will have significantly reduced their demands on natural resources – their ecological footprint.
Resource use is driven by consumer demands. We need to design our lives, our communities and technologies to better use water, land, energy and materials. The assumption that humankind can take as much as it wants from the natural world will have to be challenged. However, reducing the use of resources does not mean reducing quality of life or the vitality of the economy, but of being much more efficient in the use of resources. Globally, improvements in resource use efficiency of between four and ten times current efficiency seem necessary to stay ahead of population growth. Australia 's population is growing slowly, but resource use is high and increasing, so any level of reduction would be a good first step.
1.4 a planned landscape
By 2020, all planning decisions will take account of the capacity, condition and visual amenity of the landscape and maintain the health of the environment.
Human activity in the landscape operates within limits set by government in legislation and policy, in the interests of the common good. As demands on natural resources increase, planning becomes more important.
By 2020, regional planning will be integrated across economic, environmental and social dimensions. Land use planning will take account of the capacity of the local landscape and integrate ecosystem needs with residential, industrial, agricultural and tourism use[1]. The goals of local communities will be articulated with the long-term future in mind, and technical information and specialist advice will be brought to bear on plans.
1.5 cohesive, innovative communities
In 2020, each of the Region's communities will be working creatively towards a balance between environmental, economic and social goals.
The Region faces an influx of new settlers over the next 20 years, bringing different histories and different values. They won't immediately understand the way the landscape is managed, but they will bring new ideas, new knowledge and more resources. There will be more conflict, but greater diversity also brings more creativity to communities.
Cohesive communities focus people's passion for life on the place where they live, sharing knowledge, networks and hard work[2]. Innovative communities learn together. Most of the answers to the riddle of sustainability are yet to be invented, and one breeding ground for innovation are small local groups, working on their own goals, at their own pace, learning from each small step they take.
1.6 partnership between community and government
By 2020, those contributing to natural resource management will respect each other's knowledge and values, agree on goals, targets and commitments, make use of each others' capabilities and learn as they take action.
Natural resource management (NRM) is a cooperative endeavour. It requires expert knowledge and local knowledge; government policy that creates frameworks to address issues and innovation by enterprises; and joint investment from public and private sources. At every point, effective action is based on effective partnerships. By 2020, the idea of ‘partnership' that has currency today will be translated into working relationships in the Region.
