South West Catchments Council (SWCC), the region’s peak natural resource management organisation, is today relaunching as ‘South West NRM’. The not-for-profit is reinvigorating its mission to deliver game-changing environmental solutions that build healthy and productive ecosystems.
SWCC has been around for over 20 years, investing more than $45m into the region over the past decade. Its environmental programs have resulted in over 1.5 million seedlings planted, thousands of hectares of degraded land rehabilitated, the protection of iconic threatened species and the agricultural community adopting increasingly sustainable farming practices.
The South West is globally recognised as one of nature’s most important places, a biodiversity hotspot where targeted investment can drive significant positive environmental change. It is one of the most biologically rich, but threatened, places on earth.
The region has less than thirty percent of its original natural vegetation and has been identified as one of the world’s drying hotspots by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It is home to fourteen threatened ecological communities, 168 threatened species and three internationally important Ramsar-listed wetlands.
In describing the organisation’s evolution, CEO Sally Wilkinson said:
“South West NRM is stepping up to meet the challenge of a lifetime, scaling up its work with industry, government, community and landholders to address the urgent threats of climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation by 2030”.
To support this renewed mission, the new name is accompanied by a new brand and visual identity that reflects the region’s unique landscape, with the curves of nature and the straight lines of agriculture. A new website shares knowledge to inspire others to join the mission.
As well as continuing the vital work they’ve been dedicated to for decades, South West NRM is looking to the future. They’re advancing climate-smart technologies and practices, nature-based solutions and emerging environmental markets. They’re supporting landholders and businesses to make real changes that benefit everyone in the region, and they’re following the lead of First Nations partners, listening and learning from the region’s Traditional Owners.
South West NRM is supported by its association membership of ten environmental organisations, each invested in the protection, rehabilitation and sustainable use of the natural resources in the South West of Western Australia. Work occurs from north of Bunbury, east to Dumbleyung in the Wheatbelt, down through the southern forests to Walpole and throughout the Margaret River region.
To find out more, head to southwestnrm.org.au.
