Bush Regeneration has its genesis in volunteerism.  Whether we are talking about Albert Morris or the Bradley Sisters, many of the initial concepts of bush regeneration started with volunteers seeing a problem, undertaking trials, learning from experience, modifying their methodologies and techniques, and promoting those that worked and under what conditions.

Volunteers are still a major proportion of bush regenerators, even now when there is a mature and continually expanding professional industry. Anecdotally, many AABR members who are professional regenerators are also volunteers, and there are many AABR members whose only bush regeneration activity is through volunteering.

We should never forget how important bush regeneration volunteering is and, more critically, how important bush regeneration volunteers are.

It is often volunteer bush regenerators who influence and convince local councils to invest in bush regeneration, both through Bushcare and similar progams and through employment of professional bush regenerators. It is volunteers that have discovered and protected a myriad of threatened species within remnant bushland. It is volunteers that are out there maintaining and progressing regeneration month after month after month, whether or not the land managers are also investing in professional regeneration.

Interestingly,  some of the Bushcare programs in Sydney had their genesis in contract bush regenerators convincing councils that they would not be able to manage all their bushland through engaging professional regenerators and that they should start and support volunteer bush regeneration programs.

Biodiversity volunteering goes beyond bush regeneration though. The Landcare movement, though Australia wide mostly does not have a bush regeneration focus in its biodiversity focused projects (though I acknowledge that there are many Landcare groups that do excellent bush regeneration!), often concentrating on other approaches. There are programs that restore aquatic habitat, create artificial hollows for fauna breeding, monitor water quality, undertake citizen science, rehabilitate injured wildlife, collect and grow and translocate threatened plant species, and educate the broader public on biodiversity and environmental issues and action.

Sadly, though just as there is a growing recognition and acknowledgement of the need for more and different action to address the extinction crisis and decline of biodiversity across Australia, there is a general decline in the support to best practice volunteer programs.

Anecdotally, some local government run volunteer programs have been ‘dumbing down’ activities, moving from programs that allowed trained volunteers to carry out high end bush regeneration to weed and plant programs, which are not integrated with internal or contract bush regeneration.

The Australian Government has significantly reduced funding to Landcare programs (and seemingly quietly scrapped the National Landcare Program), and many States and Territories have reduced their funding as well (NSW seems to be the exception here).

Many of the grants programs that supported much of the biodiversity volunteer activity around Australia have been reduced, abandoned or switched to other issues

So, what needs to be done?

In my opinion, we need to create a situation where all the volunteer-based opportunities are mapped to identify synergies, gaps, overlaps and conflict – both geographically and thematically.

We should create a common vision of the role of volunteers in the restoration of ecosystems and the management of biodiversity. We should also agree on best practice and appropriate practice and encourage all programs such as Landcare and Bushcare to move to best practice restoration so that all effort is having the highest impact.

We need the staff who manage volunteer programs to understand bush regeneration and best practice, and to support the move towards best practice, which will entail adequate training and support for the staff and volunteers.

We need the natural resource, bushland and environmental managers in all levels of government to also understand best practice and set up the policies, legislation, grants and programs that will support this happening and support the roles that volunteers can and want to have.

We need seamless integration of volunteers, professionals and also individual land managers so that we move from the shotgun approach to biodiversity recovery and to a strategic approach.

We need our tertiary, vocational and other training programs to be fit for purpose and deliver relevant and meaningful training and education to volunteer and professional bush regenerators, land managers and scientists.

Ultimately, we need recognition of the real costs of reversing the biodiversity crisis and support all actors, volunteer and professional alike in achieving this reversal through adequate funding and recognition of the important role that volunteers will play.

AABR is about to embark on a project, with a range of partners and funded through the NSW Environmental Trust, to collate, develop and make available best practice resources to all decision makers, land managers, volunteers and professionals so that we can start moving towards common visions. I hope that through this project AABR can also continue to advocate for the support, relevance and importance of volunteer bush regenerators in the management and recovery of our ecosystems.

Peter Dixon, President