Building Resilient NRM Communities in the Central Slopes Region

 This collection contains materials produced by the Central Slopes Cluster of the Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Research Grants Program.  The Program aims to improve the capacity of regional Natural Resource Management (NRM) organisations in Australia to plan for climate change.

 This program was developed as part of the Australian Government's Regional NRM Planning for Climate Change Fund. The aim of the project was to deliver quality information and support to assist the natural resource management organisations of the Central Slopes Cluster in planning responses to climate change. 

 The consortium was led by the University of Southern Queensland (Australian Centre for Sustainable Catchments) in collaboration with its partners the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage; the QLD Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the University of Canberra (Institute for Applied Ecology).  The data and information products were developed in partnership with the regional natural resource management bodies of the Central Slopes - Condamine Alliance, Queensland Murray Darling Committee, Northern Tablelands Local Land Services (then Border Rivers-Gwydir CMA), Central West Local Land Services (then Central West CMA) and the North West Local Land Services (then Namoi CMA).

 Information was delivered to support decisions in the following priority areas:

• Assessing the land-use management impacts on carbon and associated co-benefits
• Understanding the impacts on and opportunities for agricultural production in the region
• Understanding the likely impacts on the natural resource base and land management issues
• Understanding the impacts of climate change on the riparian, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems
• A Climate Risk Management Matrix for the Central Slopes with key adaptation strategies for the consideration.
• A legacy of discoverable and accessible information with the data and information produced made available through TerraNova.

About Central Slopes: The cluster is located on the western side of the Great Dividing Range and is dominated by landforms such as tablelands, slopes and plains. The Central Slopes regional Natural Resource Management (NRM) organisations in Queensland are the Queensland Murray Darling Committee (the Border Rivers and Maranoa-Balonne catchments) and the Condamine Alliance (Condamine catchment); and in New South Wales the former Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) for the Border Rivers-Gwydir, the Namoi and the Central West. In January 2014, the CMA regions of NSW were re-aligned to form the new Local Land Services (LLS) regions.The North West, Northern Tablelands, Central West and Central Tablelands LLS regions all have areas included within the Central Slopes cluster.