Program Area

Environment & Conservation

rock wallaby large cross fostered btrw pouch young

usc fraserisland tropical forest dscf5873

The aim of this Program Area is to support Australian urban and regional communities to live sustainably and preserve biodiversity. This is considered important in the context of a challenging future due to factors such as land degradation, Australia's limited water resources and climate change.

Environment & Conservation grants are of two types. The Foundation has a particular interest in supporting programs and research that promote sustainable approaches to agriculture, opportunities within the carbon economy and land management practices that encompass a landscape-scale approach to protecting areas of high conservation value. Applications for $100,000 or more are received via an Expression of Interest process.

In addition, the Foundation supports smaller projects by recognising the important role played by volunteers and environmental organisations in increasing public understanding and awareness. Applications of up to $20,000 should be made on the Small Grants Application Form.

Funding objectives and further information regarding both grant types is below. Please note that the Foundation will not fund grants between $20,001 and $99,999 in the Environment & Conservation program area.

GENERAL EXCLUSIONS
Refer to the Eligibility page for the Foundation's General Exclusions.

Grants submitted within this area may also be considered for an Alec Prentice Sewell Gift.

Applications for Grants

Up to $20,000

OBJECTIVES

To foster broad public awareness leading to significant volunteer support to meet the environmental challenges facing urban and rural Australia

To contribute to projects that look to leverage support from multiple stakeholders with a view to:

Increasing public awareness of environmental challenges facing urban and rural Australia; and/or
Encouraging the development of policies that are committed jointly to the economic and ecological sustainability of our communities; or
Enabling community or interest groups, particularly smaller Heritage Trust Groups, to prepare Conservation Management Plans that record built heritage which can be demonstrated to be of significance, and identify viable end uses for the asset.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Please use the Small Grants Application Form for applications of up to $20,000.

CLOSING DATE

The next closing date for grant applications up to $20,000 is:

Monday, 28 May 2012

Applications must be received by 5.00 pm on the Closing Date.

Grants submitted within this area may also be considered for an Alec Prentice Sewell Gift

Applications for Grants

$100,000 and over

OBJECTIVES

To assist communities, especially agricultural regions, in protecting and maintaining areas of high conservation value, particularly through the promotion of sustainable agriculture and management practices on a landscape scale.

To support high quality research and programs that help communities develop partnerships with enterprises and institutions to reduce carbon emissions and better adapt to an increasing carbon environment.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Refer to the Expression of Interest process and the Foundation's General Exclusions.

CLOSING DATES

Closing dates do not apply and EOIs will be accepted on an ongoing basis.

Grant summary

Royal Zoological Society of SA

Releasing a Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby back into the bush

$100,000 in 2007 / $100,000 in 2008
Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby Recovery Program

The Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby is the only species of rock wallaby found in South-Eastern Australia and it was once common along the east coast from Western Victoria through to Southern Queensland. It is considered extinct in the Australian Capital Territory and the species has been all but lost from most of the central and southern sections of its distribution.

Recognising the fragile state of the population in the mid 1990s, a group of experts came together to form the Victorian Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby Recovery Team. The combined cutting edge science and leadership within the program was enough to convince The Ian Potter Foundation to contribute $100,000 in early 2007. Over the past two years, that funding, with additional support from private donors and philanthropic foundations, has contributed to the remarkable recovery of the species.

The success of this cutting edge science trial to boost the wallaby numbers led to a further $100,000 grant from the Foundation in 2008.

At the forefront of this science is a cross-fostering program which sees the young of Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies transferred into the pouch of other wallaby species. The cross-fostering allows the Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby to be reared until independence by the foster mother and frees the endangered Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby females to produce another young. This process is a world first in endangered species recovery.

The Recovery Program continues to excite all those involved with it. In November 2008 ten rock-wallabies (plus one pouch young) were released at three locations in the Grampians in an attempt to establish a second wild population in Victoria so there is every chance the Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby will continue its remarkable recovery.

Member

AEGN

The Foundation is a member of the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network which is an information sharing, collaborative and networking organisation aiming to assist organisations to make effective environmental grants.

http://www.aegn.org.au/

Grant summaries

Dolphin Research Institute Ltd

Victorian coastal Bottlenose Dolphins in the Gippsland Lakes

$25,000 in 2008 to the response to multiple deaths and disease of Victorian coastal Bottlenose Dolphins in the Gippsland Lakes.

Nine dolphins have died in Victoria’s Gippsland Lakes since November 2006, some heavily covered with fist-sized fungal skin lesions that had penetrated deep into the dolphins’ blubber layer.

Initial monitoring by the Dolphin Research Institute (DRI) in December 2007 revealed that up

to one-third of the dolphins in some groups were significantly affected by the skin lesions.

Funding from The Ian Potter Foundation is helping DRI, their volunteers and university partners to gain a clearer understanding of the current population dynamics and the nature and cause of the disease among the Gippsland Lakes dolphins. The research will go some way to highlighting issues affecting the health and wellbeing of not only Victoria’s dolphin population but also the marine environment.

University of the Sunshine Coast

$24,220 in 2008 to the Fraser Island Young Explorer project

Socio-economically disadvantaged Year 7 school students will have the opportunity to participate in ‘real’ environmental science on Fraser Island, Queensland.

While being supported by scientists at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), students will have the chance to monitor and report scientific

findings for their own school-based projects and as part of a long-term global research project on the challenges of environmental stability.

Students will stay at USC accommodation on the island for five days, working with and learning from university researchers. Funding from the Foundation will heavily subsidise the camp, ensuring that there are no financial barriers to student participation in the project.

Wreck of the ship Maheno from 1935. Photo Dr Christian Jones