The Southern Tasmania Regional Drought Resilience Plan (RDRP) has been built on discussions, sometimes one-on-one, but often gathering in groups at a community hall, neighbourhood house or council chambers to explore issues of resilience to drought and climate variability.   Representatives from agriculture, local government, community groups and local businesses came together to share diverse perspectives, prioritise outcomes and devise a plan together. The vision and goals shown in the below Table were tested with more than 500 community members, who shared their insights and ideas for how to achieve them. These ideas then informed the creation of 37 strategic actions, which we are now seeking your feedback on.

Table 1: Southern Tasmania Regional Drought Resilience themes and goals

The strategic actions for building drought and climate resilience in Southern Tasmania are below:

Overarching:

1. Sustainable funding models for community organisations: collaboratively design innovative funding models that are just, diverse, provide security for community organisations in the longer term and acknowledge those organisations that make a difference in the community.  
2. Meet the basic needs of all community members : flourishing communities, prosperous local economies, resilient landscapes and climate-conscious built environments first require community members to have equal access to food, water, health and housing.
3. Recognise and value palawa cultural knowledge, practices and ways of thinking: meaningful engagement with palawa pakana leaders to better understand how Aboriginal knowledge and expertise could guide policy, education and community responses to drought, climate transitions, water and land management.
4. Support collaboration, bringing people together to share perspectives and learnings: a way of working that is focused on creating opportunities for individuals, groups, industry and government to work together in sharing learnings, knowledge and creating change.

Flourishing Communities

5. Support centralised, place-based systems and organisations to improve social inclusion and connectedness: innovative ways to support existing and new organisations to thrive and bring people together, creating community connection.
6. Value and support community input and initiatives: Government and other organisations need to recognise, celebrate and encourage community volunteers and local groups, who are creating solutions and have a vital role in times of need.  Make it easier for them to operate and meet the needs of their communities through tangible support and resourcing their efforts, including for taking part in planning and consultation processes.
7. Resource the backbone support for key organisations to make it easier for geographical and issue-based groups to collaborate: a long-term focus on connecting like-minded groups working towards common goals through community connectors, group facilitators, peak bodies and other roles.
8. Identify ways to celebrate achievements and support skills sharing to increase resourcefulness: share stories and information such as how to grow food, reduce waste, preserve, fix, and mend.
9. Accurate, reliable and timely climate risk data and forecasts provided to the community by trusted sources – Data needs to be transparent, updated regularly, accurate and accessible so that community networks can share it and members of the community can understand it.
10. Identify, create and maintain welcoming community facilities: from bush dances to childcare to an emergency evacuation centre, communities need social infrastructure that is versatile, accessible and has adequate resources (power, water, communications, etc) and can serve multiple purposes.
11. Strengthening the connection and collaboration between communities and local government to build community resilience: develop a framework and ongoing investment in processes and systems which bring the community and local government together in working to improve the social, cultural, economic and environmental wellbeing of their communities.
12. Strengthen community-centered decision-making for government policies and strategy: develop a mandated model of collaborative working, including deliberative processes, that empower local communities to have a direct influence on decisions that affect their lives.
13.  Develop empathetic thinking and approaches to the health and wellbeing of future generations and our environment: fostering mindsets that connect individual actions that government, organisations and community take today with the broader, long-term impacts and consequences those actions will have over time.

Prosperous Local Economies

14. Improving infrastructure to support local businesses and producers to grow, make and supply locally: ensure local businesses and producers can thrive and adapt to changing conditions through strategic investment in soft infrastructure such as: technology, public services and labour as well as physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, meat processing facilities, storage facilities and telecommunications towers.
15. Resource and support opportunities to connect and collaborate with peers: support existing local networks (such as Sprout, Coal River Products Association, East Coast Primary Producers Association, Derwent Catchment Project, Tas Small Business Council, etc) and establish new groups where there are none. Where opportunities for peer-to-peer learning exist, incentivise engagement by ensuring the timing, location and cost are accessible and that the relevance and benefits of being involved are clear.
16. Support producers with tailored, localised advice and information based on best-practice and proven benefits: establish access to demonstration sites to show best-practice and transformative change in action. Support existing extension resources and re-establish a network of place-based extension officers, across the region, who can provide tailored information and links to other resources at no cost.
17. Make existing businesses and farms attractive and viable for the next generation and new custodians: support farming systems that allow work-life balance and ensure rural communities are inclusive, attractive and vibrant places to live, work and grow.
18. Increase the capacity and capability of flexible, sustainable supply chains, with a focus on supporting supply and demand locally: develop and resource ongoing coordination, to increase local processing and sourcing so that Tasmanian produce is bought and consumed by local households, hospitality and institutions.
19. Create streamlined pathways and support for primary producers to access funding and practical support through transition to climate resilient practices: build and strengthen connections with programs to support transitions from current practice towards climate resilience. Share success stories of benefits to inspire others to adopt.
20. Develop new and support existing mechanisms so palawa pakana are supported to lead, contribute to and benefit from responses to climate variability: enable palawa to pursue economic development through delivering healthy country management, in accordance with self-determined principles. Embed culturally appropriate practice across business, agencies and institutions, ensuring traditional knowledge and skills are recognised and resourced.

Resilient Landscapes

21. Prioritise building resilience, and in times of need ensure appropriate relief is delivered effectively in collaboration with local community networks: use existing networks to deliver appropriate relief that is timely, equitable, flexible and transparent.  Relief can be discounts on rates or services, access to fodder or support to establish containment feeding, ensure those who have invested in building resilience are not disadvantaged in accessing relief.
22. Improve accountability for environmental stewardship: increase the capacity to regulate and enforce controls on native vegetation clearing, pollution, animal welfare, water harvesting and new developments which will lead to better protection of ecosystems and a more sustainable future.
23. Support primary producers and land managers with targeted information, tools and funding to deliver management practices that improve landscape function to cope with drought, climate variability and minimise hazard risks: foster peer-to-peer learning, outreach and case studies to share learnings and move beyond education to adoption and implementation.
24. Develop a set of agreed indicators to collaboratively monitor ecological health over the long term: support fit-for-purpose monitoring and data collection (in line with recommendations in the State of Environment Report) that provides consistent information and builds our understanding of condition trends in landscapes, including water quality and catchment health, soil health and vegetation health.
25. Support consistent monitoring and evaluation that assesses effectiveness of initiatives that build landscape resilience and adaptation: funding and policy to support monitoring and evaluation of resilient landscapes management practices and initiatives, using the agreed indicators developed.
26. Resource innovative and impactful research, to understand effects of different interventions and practices on improving landscape function, resilience and productivity through drought and climate variation: support research that will directly lead to effectively managing the natural landscape (including waterways and ecosystems) for health and resilience.
27. Support the delivery of collaborative and integrated best-practice approaches to landscape management: develop and fund catchment-level management plans to guide future land use impacts and inputs. Built on existing work, they should be targeted at improvements to landscape function (rivers, biodiversity vegetation, soil health, etc).
28. Integrate Aboriginal-led land management and cultural practices across agencies and organisations that play a role in strengthening resilience to drought and climate variability: recognise, understand and value palawa land and water management systems. Increase funding for Indigenous ranger programs, training programs, workshop facilities, equipment and insurance.
    The work is to be led by palawa/pakana practitioners, with the ways of thinking and approaching land and water management incorporated into standard operating procedures.
29. Increase the palawa/pakana community’s access to land and waterways to connect and care for country: long-term access if not outright ownership for Aboriginal community to manage diverse areas of land, waterways and sea, to use as demonstration and research sites. Also providing areas for community to come together to connect, practice culture, share knowledge and heal country.

Climate Conscious Built Environment

30. Develop planning regulations that support retention of agricultural land, while also supporting a range of options for producers to live onsite: residential developments should focus on creating infill housing and development of land that is not used for primary production. Incentives for retaining land for food production should be explored. Amendments to planning provisions to allow multiple dwellings on a single title of productive land need to be considered to deliver more flexible production models, particularly where multiple generations or households are managing the land.
31. All existing and new buildings meet minimum sustainability and liveability standards: for existing buildings, facilitate upgrades via education, regulation, support, financial incentives and increasing building sector capacity. For new builds regulate and enforce standards for water efficiency, stormwater collection and energy efficiency.
32. Support the planning system to be adaptive and responsive to emerging risks and hazards through evidence-based policies and tools: incorporate mechanisms for evidence based climate projections to effectively and efficiently inform land use planning legislation, policy and regulation, in a timely manner, so that they remain current and reflect the communities expectations for addressing emerging risks and hazards associated with a changing climate.  Support the up-to-date mapping of hazard risks and apply regulatory responses through the Tasmanian Planning Scheme (TPS) to appropriately manage their impact on use and development. Enable the TPS to apply adaptive local responses to address issues of local concern, including providing sufficient permeable surfaces to support stormwater management, incorporating bushfire management strategies and enabling low-to-medium risk threshold.
33.  Ensure our electricity supply is resilient to disruptions caused by climate variability: diversify electricity supply to be less reliant on rainfall (e.g. solar, wind, EV to grid) and expand the network to accommodate increased electrification. Improve the resilience of the transmission network, develop local solutions for back-up energy needs (e.g. community batteries) and support households and businesses to be more energy efficient.
34. An integrated and coordinated water use strategy that recognises water as a precious resource and ensures its efficient capture, supply and usage: support alignment and collaboration between Hydro Tas, TasWater and Tas Irrigation. Combine the rural and town/urban water use strategies to allow an integrated system-wide approach to water across the region. Support water efficiency initiatives and uptake of reuse and recycling of water across the system from transmission through to end users. Ensure there is no maladaptation, such as over-reliance on water storage solutions that will become scarce during drought conditions.
35. Improve the supply and reliability of communication systems and digital connectivity: address communication blackspots to enable rural communities to have more resilient communication networks. Beyond social connection and day-to-day logistics, reliable access to digital communications enables use of more sophisticated technology and supports crucial data needs on farms (e.g. remote irrigation control, access to online tools and climatic condition information).
36. Develop systems that support regional sufficiency: regional and community-sufficiency is creating a system that enables us to collectively meet our basic needs locally, rather than being dependent on outside assistance. Sustainability should be a key driver of development and business practices, supporting circular economy principles like recycling, reuse and closed loop systems.
37. Establish an effective, efficient and climate resilient road network and a public and active transport system across the region:  assess existing roads and bridges and make sure new developments are resilient to weather events such as flooding and storm surges.  Identify opportunities to improve the coverage and convenience of public and active transport.