Rainforests of the NSW north coast and tablelands regional bushfire recovery workshop report Summary of outcomes from the regional co-design workshop 23 September 2020 Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment i Rainforests of the NSW north coast and tablelands regional bushfire recovery workshop report © Commonwealth of Australia 2020 Ownership of intellectual property rights Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights) in this publication is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia (referred to as the Commonwealth). Creative Commons licence All material in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence except content supplied by third parties, logos and the Commonwealth Coat of Arms. Inquiries about the licence and any use of this document should be emailed to [email protected]. Cataloguing data This publication (and any material sourced from it) should be attributed as: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment 2020, Rainforests of the NSW north coast and tablelands regional bushfire recovery workshop report, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Canberra, November. CC BY 4.0. ISBN 978-1-76003-355-2 This publication is available at http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/bushfire-recovery/regional-delivery- program Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment GPO Box 858 Canberra ACT 2601 Telephone 1800 900 090 Web awe.gov.au The Australian Government acting through the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment has exercised due care and skill in preparing and compiling the information and data in this publication. Notwithstanding, the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, its employees and advisers disclaim all liability, including liability for negligence and for any loss, damage, injury, expense or cost incurred by any person as a result of accessing, using or relying on any of the information or data in this publication to the maximum extent permitted by law. Acknowledgements The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment wants to thank workshop participants for their input. Thanks to Hannah Fraser, Kelly de Bie and Libby Rumpff for their workshop facilitation and for compiling this report. Cover photo credits: Bushfire landscape: Beyond Coal & Gas Image Library CC BY-NC 2.0. Eastern Bristlebird: David Cook CC BY-NC 2.0 Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment ii Rainforests of the NSW north coast and tablelands regional bushfire recovery workshop report Contents 1 Executive summary................................................................................................................................. 1 2 Background ............................................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 Regional bushfire recovery funding ................................................................................................... 2 2.2 Workshop approach ................................................................................................................................. 5 3 Workshop findings .................................................................................................................................. 6 3.1 Proposed management actions ............................................................................................................ 6 3.2 Other actions not included in the strategy ...................................................................................... 8 3.3 Additional budget ...................................................................................................................................... 9 Appendix A: Workshop agenda ................................................................................................................ 11 Appendix B: Participating organisations ............................................................................................. 13 Appendix C: Regional profile for the Rainforests of the NSW north coast and tablelands region ................................................................................................................................................................ 15 Maps Map 1: The seven bushfire affected regions that are the focus of regional investment ....................... 2 Map 2: A map of the NSW north coast and tablelands region, showing bushfire severity of the 2019–20 bushfires ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Tables Table 1: Proposed budget breakdown for bushfire recovery actions for the Rainforests of the NSW north coast and tablelands region ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment iii Rainforests of the NSW north coast and tablelands regional bushfire recovery workshop report 1 Executive summary The Australian Government is investing $110 million to provide strategic on-ground support for the most impacted native species, ecological communities and natural assets across seven bushfire affected regions. A series of co-design workshops were held with regional stakeholders across the seven regions to guide the Australian Government's continued investment in bushfire recovery. The aim of each workshop was to engage and collaborate with regional stakeholders to: 1) identify priorities amongst species, ecological communities and natural assets, identified as high priorities for urgent management intervention, that require additional funding to secure their recovery following the devastating 2019–20 summer bushfires 2) identify an action plan to guide the allocation of additional funds from the Australian Government to maximise the chances of recovery of those priority species, communities, and assets, and to build on existing planning and recovery work. This action plan can also act as a guide for other investors. The Rainforests of the NSW North Coast stakeholder workshop was held on the 30th September 2020. With an indicative budget of $13 million, participants identified priority actions and developed a partial strategy for aiding the recovery of priority species and assets. However, given the richness of the conversation and time constraints, the strategy was not completed within the workshop. The strategy developed in the workshop included traditional owner led healing of country; habitat enhancement and weed control; fire management; pest control; riparian management; species or threatened ecological community specific actions and data validation. Further discussion is required to understand to what extent educating the community about appropriate fire management and developing a panel to coordinate actions in the region should be included in the plan. Participants emphasised the need for all of these actions to be conducted across land tenures. Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment 1 Rainforests of the NSW north coast and tablelands regional bushfire recovery workshop report 2 Background 2.1 Regional bushfire recovery funding The Australian Government is investing $110 million to provide strategic on-ground support for the most impacted native species, ecological communities and natural assets, such as World Heritage Areas and Ramsar listed wetlands, across seven bushfire affected regions: the Rainforests of south-east Queensland, the Rainforests of the NSW north coast and tablelands, the Greater Blue Mountains and World Heritage Area, the Forests of the NSW south coast, Australian alpine environment, Forests and coastal ecosystems of East Gippsland, and Kangaroo Island (Map 1). Map 1 The seven bushfire affected regions that are the focus of regional investment A series of co-design workshops were held across the seven bushfire affected regions. The broad aim of these workshops was to engage and collaborate with regional stakeholders to inform Australian Government investment in on-ground bushfire recovery, targeted at medium-term recovery of priority species. Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment 2 Rainforests of the NSW north coast and tablelands regional bushfire recovery workshop report The workshops were designed to build on existing recovery planning work for each region, by sharing and consolidating knowledge of existing and proposed efforts and identifying a plan for action that targets gaps in investment. Specifically, the workshops aimed to: 1) identify priorities amongst the large number of species, ecological communities and natural assets which have been identified as high priorities for urgent management intervention and that require additional funding to secure their recovery following the devastating 2019–20 summer bushfires 2) identify an action plan to guide the allocation of additional funds from the Australian Government to maximise the chances of recovery of those priority species, communities, and assets, and to build on existing planning and recovery work. The Rainforests of the NSW North Coast region (Map 2) has been allocated an indicative amount of $13 million to support action that targets gaps in investment for the relevant priority species. The workshop agenda is at Appendix 1, and the list of attendees is at Appendix 2. The regional profile which outlines the priority species, priority actions and