A
key aim of the Australian Native Plants Society
is the conservation of Australian plants and
their habitats. In pursuing this aim the Society
has a Conservation Group that meets regularly,
currently on the third Thursday of each month.
The Group's discussions primarily relate to
local issues but may cover wider conservation
and environmental matters. All members are encouraged
to contribute to the Group's discussions. Meeting
details are published in the Society's monthly
Bulletin.
ANPS
is a member of the Conservation Council of the
South East Region and Canberra and members attend
Council meetings and what is known as the Biodiversity
Working Group. This enables us to contribute
to the broader conservation frameworks that
involve other groups and to learn and expand
our horizons. It enables co-operation on native
vegetation protection issues-an important factor
when there is no legislation and no commitment
to this concept. As individuals we believe that
through planting local in our gardens we can
advance the cause of saving remnants, and managing
the one's we have left, in order to leave
something for the future. The Society's
vision is a city that promotes appreciation,
understanding and research of Australian native
plants in their natural habitats and in gardens
and public places. We invite you to participate
in making this vision a reality.
Andrew
Campbell, the Executive Director of Land and
Water Australia likes to talk about Australia's
conservation challenge as being one of choices
about Landscapes, Lifestyles and Livelihoods.
At the local level conservation is about trying
to retain as much of the remaining native vegetation
as possible within a rigorous planning framework
that allows for sensible and ecologically sustainable
development. There are two main points to protecting
native vegetation, protect existing remnant
vegetation and, if you need to take some action,
establish local native species, from local seed
and suited to the planting location. You can
do something to help, because individual action
is the basis of successful conservation action.
ANPS
has two conservation projects at present:
- Weed Swap: will need to put in the date every 6 months
This
project is a joint initiative of the Society,
Environment ACT and the Commonwealth Government
through its Natural Heritage Trust. It involves
the distribution of native plants in return
for environmental weeds removed from gardens.
- Pamphlet
on indigenous gardens
The Society
(under the name SGAP) was established at State
level Australia-wide to encourage the use of
Australian plants in local gardens. While this
has continued to be a key aim of the Canberra
Society it has been recognised for some time
that local plants have a key role in providing
habitat for a wide range of local animals. The
Society has recently amended its Conservation
Policy to encourage individual gardeners to
plant local native plants grown from local seed
into suburban gardens. To ensure that action
is consistent with words, it has instituted
a project, 'Local Native Plants for Local
Gardens', which aims to educate Society
members and the general public about local native
plants by ensuring there is a supply of local
provenance plants for sale and distribution.
We believe
the project is consistent with ACT Government
policies as shown in the Natural Resource Management
Plan, Action Plan 27 and Government support
for the Greening Australia Seeds for Survival
project. In particular we note that Action Plan
27 (P. 77) states that among the principles
for undertaking regeneration and plant restoration
activities is: "where possible, collect
seed for restoration activities from local populations
to maintain local genetic provenances".
|
