Sustainable natural resource management is about ensuring a future for our grandchildren.

Natural resource managers plan the wise use of what nature provides so the current generation can enjoy the social, economic and environmental benefits and pass a lasting legacy on to future generations.

Community-based natural resource management across the Lake Eyre Basin was initiated by the community in the mid 1990s and led to the formation of the Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating Group. This group was ahead of its time in developing an inclusive, community designed, owned and driven process with a partnership approach to managing natural resources across state borders.

It had major input into the negotiation of the original Lake Eyre Basin Intergovernmental Agreement between the Queensland, South Australian and Commonwealth governments. Part of this agreement was the formation of a Ministerial Forum and a Community Advisory Committee.

The Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating Group and the cross-border, community process has been overtaken by the Australia-wide, regional proccess. Across the Lake Eyre Basin there are now 4 state-based bodies planning and implementing sustainable management of our natural resources: Desert Channels Queensland; Rangelands Integrated Natural Resource Management Group (SA); Landcare Council of the Northern Territory; and the Western Catchment Management Authority (NSW).

Why is natural resource management important?

If we, as custodians of the land, fail to manage it wisely, we will leave less opportunities for our children and more, difficult challenges for them to overcome.

The Aboriginal inhabitants of this continent practised sustainable natural resource management for thousands of generations. Their culture, beliefs and natural resource management practices were inextricably interwoven to ensure sustainability and to provide a lasting legacy.

Contemporary Australians are only beginning to understand this strange, un-European land their forebears came to. The management practices brought to this antipodean land have in many cases proven less than ideal and in some cases, simply disastrous.

Enlightened individuals and organisations have been working to ensure that mistakes are corrected and the resulting damage is minimised and reversed where possible.

Governments have realised that the only way to succeed in the crucial area of sustainable natural resource management is for the community to drive the process.

As part of a national effort to ensure the success of community-based natural resource management, a regional approach has been adopted by the Federal and state governments. Under these regional arrangements for the delivery of funds from the second round of the Natural Heritage Trust, Australia was split into 56 regions on a state-by-state basis.

Each region has developed, or is developing, an integrated natural resource management plan and an associated regional investment strategy to guide investment in its area.

As mentioned above, there are now 4 state-based regional bodies that cover the Lake Eyre Basin for the purpose of community-based natural resource management. For such a system to work, these bodies have to work in close partnership to ensure that natural resource management issues, which don't stop at state borders, are tackled in an integrated manner, and that those borders don't get in the way.