Funding of $43.9m over five years is available to support regional natural resource management (NRM) organisations to plan for climate change impacts and maximise the environmental benefits of carbon farming projects. This information is to be used to update existing regional NRM plans. For example, NRM plans could by updated to include optimum locations for biosequestration projects.
The fund is divided into two streams:
NRM organisations planning for climate change impacts on the land and maximising the environmental benefits of carbon farming projects.
Funding supports the revision of existing regional NRM plans to help identify where in the landscape climate change adaptation and mitigation activities should be undertaken. Stream 1 has $28.9m for a five-year period. This stream will be administered by the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.
The aim is to assist regional NRM organisations to:
- Update existing regional NRM plans to incorporate climate change mitigation and adaptation information and approaches.
- Use best-available information to plan for the impacts of climate change.
- Help guide the location and nature of biodiversity and carbon farming activities in the landscape.
Funding will provide a framework for expected land use changes (eg carbon plantings) as well as consider impacts on natural ecosystems. Under the CFI, applicants for eligible offset projects will need to identify consistency with the relevant regional NRM plan.
Stream 1 also connects with the Biodiversity Fund by supporting planning that will help guide the types and locations of activities, primarily reforestation activities and the management of remnant vegetation.
The first round of applications closed on the 26 February 2013. There are currently no funded projects. Round one applications for regional NRM organisations closed on 6 February 2013. Opportunities for the vegetable industry will be limited to a regional watching brief and contribution to the planning process where relevant.
NRM organisations planning for climate change impacts on the land and maximising the environmental benefits of carbon farming projects.
Stream 2 will provide $15 million over four financial years to produce regional-level climate change information to support medium-term regional NRM and land-use planning. This stream will be administered by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCCEE).
Stream 2 will deliver:
- Regional climate projections for the whole of Australia. The projections will focus on the elements of climate change of highest priority to NRM groups. CSIRO will lead the NRM projections project, in collaboration with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). The NRM projections project will build on the ‘Climate Futures’ approach, developed by CSIRO, to simplify the communication and management of the growing range of global and regional climate change projections data. The Climate Futures approach involves identifying a small number of future climates that are representative of the range of plausible climate change outcomes simulated by climate models.
- Impacts and Adaptation Grants Program for research institutions’ partnerships with regional NRM organisations to deliver information on climate change, its impacts and potential adaptation responses, and provide guidance on how to use that information in NRM planning through the NRM Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Research Grants Program (Impacts and Adaptation Grants Program). This component has $8 million over four financial years. For delivery, the 56 NRM regions have been grouped into eight ‘clusters’. The clusters are designed according to common characteristics in relation to land use, climate and how these are anticipated to change.
Applications closed on 27 September 2012 with successful projects yet to be made public.