Biodiversity and Agricultural Natural Capital Assets Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan

In the past decade, regions across Australia have experienced drought, significant flooding, and the worst bushfires in living memory. These disaster-scale events are becoming more frequent and intense.

As the most climate-exposed region in the country, South East Queensland (SEQ) has experienced the full force of these weather events with some of our worst environmental disasters in recent years, such as the 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires and Southern Queensland 2021-22 flood events.

As the frequency and severity of these climate-driven weather events increases, Healthy Land & Water recognises the importance of disaster preparedness to ecosystem resilience and recovery in SEQ.

Healthy Land & Water are pleased to release the Biodiversity and Agricultural Natural Capital Assets Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan (2024). This plan focusses on natural disaster preparedness and response in SEQ and outlines how investing in disaster preparedness can help reduce long-term costs for recovery and restoration post-disaster.

Healthy Land & Water has played a pivotal role in post-disaster assessments following flood and fire disasters, contributing to flood, fire and drought preparedness and mitigation capacity-building and works.

This plan aims to better integrate biodiversity and agricultural natural capital assets into emergency planning and response to reduce recovery and restoration costs and promote the integrity and survival of species and natural ecosystems.

As the peak natural resource management group in SEQ, Healthy Land & Water supports the protection and restoration of aquatic ecosystems, catchment management, climate adaptation, resilience planning, community engagement, recovering from natural disasters and capacity building with stakeholders across the region.

By supporting communities to prepare for disasters, we aim to reduce the impact of these catastrophic events on species, ecosystems, and agricultural natural capital assets.

To download a copy of the region's plan, click on the below link.