Greg
Was aware of the Aussie position - but this is one of my main personal
projects as a member of the board of the Mpumalanga Tourism & Parks Agency
(Mpumalanga is a province in the NE of SA, including 1/2 the Kruger National
Park).
I have accessed many of your government's (and NGO's) papers on financial
incentives (not necessarily direct payments, but rather reductions in taxes,
etc) to encourage land-owners to look after their land. As SA doesn't have
the financial resources available to you, so trying to persuade our
government of the advantages is not easy. However, there is a real
opportunity as rates (land tax) is now being extended to rural areas - much
to the horror of farmers. Up to now they haven't had to pay a cent in tax
apart from income tax or VAT. So allowing them a discount for good
environmental management may soften the blow. The problem is how to measure
good management in a legally defensible way that doesn't cost a fortune to
implement!
If you (or anyone else on Birding-Aus) knows of anyone actively working in
this field, I would really be interested in corresponding with them. Our
treasury has expressed concrete interest in this topic, and is finalising
its environmental fiscal review right now.
Giles
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Giles Mulholland
4-site planning cc (making the future happen)
P.O. Box 162, Schagen 1207, South Africa
E-mail: birds =at= 4siteplanning.co.za
Web: www.4-siteplanning.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: Greg & Val Clancy
Sent: 21 January 2008 13:39
To: ;
Subject: Ethical Birding
Hi Giles,
You are right that landowners in Australia don't 'own' the biodiversity on
their properties but they do have the ability to control it either in a
positive or negative way. I was a little casual with my choice of words but
the point I was making was that without the support of the landowners
off-park conservation would be very difficult indeed. There are many laws
'protecting' biodiversity on private lands in Australia but the loss of
biodiversity continues. The only way the laws will be effective is by
landowners working voluntarily within them.
Regards
Greg
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