The NZ Landcare Trust has recently completed a strategic plan which outlines how the trust aims to achieve its purpose of encouraging and supporting land users to set up and operate landcare groups - and it would welcome comments and suggestions on it.
Landcare groups come together to deal with common land use issues or problems.
The groups aim to include all land users, and they undertake projects which will help them find sustainable solutions, share knowledge and bring in new ideas. They usually start off by focusing on local issues such as pests and weeds, land degradation, water quality, land use planning, or nature conservation. Generally landcare groups are made up of rural land users, but increasingly there are more beachcare, dunecare, urbancare, rivercare and other groups concerned with the environment starting up. It believes that through these groups continual improvement of sustainable land management practices in rural communities can be promoted. They are particularly interested in working with groups which could provide active support to the groups themselves.