Biodiversity Conservation Education

Biodiversity Conservation Education Strategy

Under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, one of the BCT’s four tasks is to promote ‘public knowledge, appreciation and understanding of biodiversity and the importance of conserving biodiversity.’

To implement this responsibility, the BCT has developed a Biodiversity Conservation Education Strategy. The BCT Board has approved the BCT investing $2 million per annum to implement the strategy.

We have identified three audience-focussed objectives for our strategy:

• influence more landholders in priority investment areas to participate in private land conservation and sustainable land management
• raise public awareness about the importance of biodiversity and biodiversity conservation on private land
• assist our agreement holders in effective conservation and sustainable land management.

There are many government and non-government agencies and organisations involved in environmental education. The BCT does not wish to duplicate the efforts of others. Because of this, the BCT is focussing its educative efforts on the BCT’s core business, which is private land conservation. We are also taking an approach of designing and delivering educational projects in partnership with expert organisations.

The BCT is now rolling out a range of projects to implement the strategy. For example:

• We are sharing as much information as we can about biodiversity and the importance of conserving biodiversity on private land on our website.
• One of our major projects, Conservation Champions, targets regional school students. It aims to promote the importance of biodiversity conservation in regional communities by educating the next generation of landholders. Students involved in Conservation Champions learn from our landholders, our staff, and educators through hands-on activities in the classroom and in the field. The project is being co-delivered by the BCT and Petaurus Education Group across NSW. We work with landholders and schools across a range of different landscapes. The video below highlights one of our Conservation Champions field days in Boorowa.

• Another major project under development is the Biodiversity on my Land Museum in a Box, developed in partnership with the Australian Museum. These boxes, which will contain a wide variety of hands-on learning activities, will be available for hire by schools, community centres and libraries in 2020. The project will encourage students to explore the role of private landholders in protecting biodiversity. It will also highlight the importance of the many under-represented landscapes in NSW, the species found there, their role in the broader landscape’s function and the stories of those landholders protecting them.

If you are interested in becoming involved in the BCT’s education program, please do not hesitate to contact us.