Strategic Environmental Trust grants
Introduction
The NSW City and Country Environment Restoration Program was announced by Premier Iemma in November 2005. It provides funding of $439 million to be spent over five years. It will allow us to tackle our most significant environmental challenges. Under this program, we will work towards restoring our icon wetlands ... protecting our marine environment ... securing the high conservation values of our crown lands ... and reducing the ecological footprint of our urban centres. This new program will also send a strong economic signal about the importance of avoiding the creation of waste and the need to recover, reuse and recycle our valuable resources.
Much of the City and Country Environment Restoration Program will be implemented by the Environmental Trust. The Trust has an excellent record over many years supporting exceptional environmental projects that have increased the community's knowledge and skills about the environment and sought to promote behaviour change.
Community organisations, local councils, schools and Aboriginal communities have all undertaken environmental projects benefiting their communities.
The City and Country Environment Restoration Program provides $76 million to be spent over five years on the continuation of these Strategic Environmental Trust grants. This will allow the Trust to continue in its efforts to help the people of NSW to protect and restore their environment.
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Environmental Trust
The Environmental Trust is an independent statutory body established by the NSW Government to support exceptional environmental projects that do not receive funds from the usual government sources. The Trust is empowered under the Environmental Trust Act 1998, and its main responsibility is to make and supervise the expenditure of grants. The Trust is administered by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC).
The Trust is chaired by the Minister for the Environment. Members are the Director-General of DEC and representatives from the Local Government and Shires Associations, the Nature Conservation Council and NSW Treasury.
Objectives
The objectives of the Environmental Trust are:
- to encourage and support restoration and rehabilitation projects
- to promote research into environmental problems of any kind
- to promote environmental education in both the public and private sectors
- to fund the acquisition of land for the national parks estate
- to fund the declaration of areas for marine parks and for related purposes
- to promote waste avoidance, resource recovery and waste management (including funding enforcement and regulation and local government programs)
- to fund environmental community groups
- to fund the purchase of water entitlements for the purpose of increasing environmental flows for the State's rivers and restoring or rehabilitating major wetlands.
The Strategic Environmental Trust Grants are part of the City & Country Environment Restoration Program.
The Trust offers grants for environmental education, restoration and rehabilitation, research and school and Aboriginal environmental projects.
Further information
For further information on all Environmental Trust programs, please to to the Environmental Trust website.