Tasmanian Midlands options to improve biodiversity governance arrangements

Conserving landscapes rich in biodiversity requires long-term planning and understanding of how social and ecological systems co-evolve. How such landscapes are governed (that is, the structures and processes that determine who has influence, who decides, and how decision-makers are held accountable) is pivotal to the long-term conservation of this biodiversity. Being able to govern across diverse landscapes, like the Tasmanian Midlands, where there are multiple landholders and multiple values, is a challenging task. Governance can improve biodiversity outcomes indirectly by enabling decision-making and management actions that are more responsive to environmental and social conditions. Better biodiversity outcomes could mean improving the extent and/or condition of biodiversity values or reducing the threat to those values. For example, this could be an increase in extent and improvement in condition of lowland native grasslands. Better outcomes might also include a decline in threats from invasive species or a land use mix that is more favourable to conservation. The process to generate the two governance options presented in this document is pictured on the following page. The research team developed two initial proposals for governance arrangements through an analysis of findings from key informant interviews, complemented by a review of the literature to identify whether best practice case studies elsewhere could offer innovative ways forward. The two proposed options were then discussed at three focus groups: one that prioritised input from Tasmanian Midlands landholders and their representative organisations; one focused on input from the Tasmanian state government staff; and one that focused on input from Australian Government staff