The ACT Government has announced a new 10-year conservation strategy to guide how future development will take nature into account.

Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Simon Corbell says the plan will guide future planning of the Territory’s open spaces, rural areas, river corridors and nature reserves.

“Here in the ACT we have some nationally significant woodlands, which are the biggest, best connected and most botanically diverse examples of their type, as well as being home to many endangered species,” Mr Corbell says.

“Central to the strategy is the notion that natural landscapes are much more resilient to threats, such as climate change and pest animals, when large areas of high quality habitat are conserved and connected to each other.”

The strategy includes community education campaigns on the importance of managing the border between urban areas and bushland edge, and the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, and programs to draw on indigenous knowledge of natural resource management.

“Nature-based education” for young Canberrans will also be encouraged under the new Nature Conservation Strategy, according to Mr Corbell’s announcement, which says the Government will also support “appropriate” use of natural areas for recreation and tourism.

“Canberrans are passionate about their environment and proud of the description of our city as the ‘bush capital’,” says Mr Corbell. “Volunteers put in tens of thousands of hours of unpaid effort every year to help manage the ACT’s natural areas. The Nature Conservation Strategy builds on that passion by building more formal collaborative partnerships between government, community and the private sector to care for our environment.”