With the looming cloud of the new government and reforms on spending hanging over the country and many Councils and organisations, local Taranaki Conservation group fear that the hefty Jobs for Nature fund will be drastically cut and or discontinued, pumping the breaks on all of the fabulous conservation work they have been completing.
The $1.19 billion Jobs for Nature programme, which has supported hundreds of projects benefiting the environment, was launched in 2020 as part of the Covid-19 recovery package. Funding will run out by about the middle of 2024, seeing not-for-profit groups working throughout Taranaki going back to relying on traditional funding grants and fundraising from other sources. In Taranaki, the Jobs For Nature programme has supercharged a lot of work, providing jobs, training and education as well as funding pest control and planting.
Only time will tell what the future holds in our environmental stewardship space, but hopefully the funding and fundamental environmental preservation and protection work continues.
To read the original article by Catherine Groenestein from STUFF click here
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