Voluntary Conservation Agreements (VCAs)

What are VCAs?
Statutory Covenants
How do VCAs work?
Benefits of VCAs
Incentives

What are VCAs ?

“Council and landholders working together for nature conservation.”

VCAs are a unique way of conserving our natural heritage for future generations. They provide benefits for both property owners and the wider community.

Conservation agreements provide financial and technical support to assist land owners in the management of privately owned bushland and other natural features outside the public land reserve system.

By entering into conservation agreements, Council assists the long-term protection of privately owned areas of high ecological value.

Wildlife corridors can be preserved, developed or enhanced. The whole community benefits through the maintenance of natural areas, visual amenity, water catchment and biodiversity protection.

Voluntary Conservation Agreement programs help private property owners and local governments to work together to conserve and protect natural assets on private land. People whose properties contain significant remnants of native bushland are invited to join the program. VCA’s provide landholders with the means to permanently protect part or all of a property for nature conservation purposes.

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Statutory Covenants

The property owner who joins the program agrees to set aside and manage a portion of their property for conservation. It is then subject to a statutory covenant and a mutually agreed conservation management plan.

A statutory covenant is applied under the Queensland Land Title Act 1994. Statutory covenants on land titles protect conservation values in perpetuity. Ie. The conditions of the covenant are binding on any successive owners.

But the conditions apply only to the designated ‘conservation area’. This means that certain conditions can ‘run with the land’ and apply only to the designated conservation area. For instance a covenant would include a vegetation protection condition, thereby protecting native vegetation in the conservation area.

The covenant offers landholders who have spent large amounts of time and money managing their bushland peace of mind knowing that the protection is ongoing.

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How do VCAs work?

The property owner and Council staff work together to identify and set management goals for the ‘conservation area’. This is known as a Conservation Management Plan. The goals of these management plans vary according to the individual attributes of each property, the type of vegetation and the varying goals of different property owners and may include:

• Removal and control of exotic plant and animal species
• Fencing to exclude livestock
• Replanting of local native flora
• Monitoring
• General restoration works

When you sign a VCA, your property becomes part of an informal nationwide network of places that protect wildlife and biodiversity, now and into the future.

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Benefits of VCAs

Property owners who sign a VCA can enjoy a range of benefits including:

• Annual financial assistance towards materials, equipment and contractors, to help achieve bushland management goals
• Technical advice and training to help achieve environmental management goals
• Contacts with other like-minded owners
• Much improved land with fewer weeds, more wildlife, less erosion and improved water quality. This can ultimately lead to lower ongoing management costs
• Increased control over noxious weeds and pest animals

VCA’s also provide a range of benefits to the surrounding community, including:

• Conservation of land with outstanding biodiversity, including riparian ecosystems, wetlands and rainforest
• Active restoration of ecological linkages, corridors and wildlife habitats
• Conservation of natural scenery and beauty of Caloundra City
• Better documentation of the knowledge and extent of weed invasion, which assists control
• Soil conservation
• Increase in the level of active community involvement in conserving the environment
• Adoption of sustainable productive land and improvement of neighbouring agricultural land
• Water quality improvement and overall improvement of catchment health
• Potential opportunities for research

As a property owner, a VCA helps to conserve your land's natural habitats without affecting your property ownership rights - your land remains under your ownership and control. This includes the right to sell your land or transfer ownership. Areas of land on your property not covered by the agreement are not affected by the agreement or the covenant and can still be used for agricultural or other purposes.

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VCA Incentives

In return for the property owners' efforts to conserve the environmental values of their properties, Caloundra City Council offers financial incentives. Materials and costs associated with implementing the management plan (up to $1500 per year), in addition a once off $1000 is available in the first year for establishment costs such as fencing. Property owners can put these funds towards the purchase of equipment, materials or contractor work to implement the agreed management plan.

Land owners will also be exempt from paying the annual environment levy (presently $60 per year). If required, costs associated with surveying the conservation area and drawing the contract will also be met by Council.

Financial assistance is made available annually after a cooperative evaluation of on-ground management outcomes for the previous year has been completed. The evaluation provides the partners with an opportunity to receive feedback and advice relating to management goals.

Property owners in the VCA program also receive the Land for Wildlife participant's technical notes and newsletters. Field days and events are held regularly throughout the year for both Land for Wildlife and VCA property owners.

Click here to view some Frequently Asked Questions on VCAs

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