By Margaret Maccoll
Dick Barnes chaired his first meeting of the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation (NBRF) this week, with the aim to bring a “different team spirit” to the board which, he said, “everyone was happy with”.
Mr Barnes said after years of ill feelings towards the NBRF across the community, the new team wanted to begin the healing process.
He said the tenure review was on the agenda as the NBRF had until the end of the year to renew its status with UNESCO.
“We have an advisory group together and they are working on it,” he said.
Mr Barnes said the tenure report would show what had been done over the past 10 years since the NBRF’s inception and would form the basis for planning the next 10 years.
“There’s been people who have done good work and we want to get these people on board,” he said.
Mr Barnes said new aims of NBRF included improved governance, communicating better with the community, increasing awareness of the NBRF and getting people to live sustainably in the environment.
He wanted a better understanding of the different roles of the NBRF and the Noosa Community Biosphere Association (NCBA).
“The NBRF is the strategic and funding body with links to the UNESCO. The association is the community ‘doing’ group,” he said.
Mr Barnes said he was in the process of putting together an advisory group to NBRF that would include Noosa councillors including Frank Pardon and people from Landcare. He said councillor Frank Wilkie was council’s representative on an observational basis.
As the new chairman, Mr Barnes has dropped the role of president of the Noosa Community Biosphere Association. The other roles he holds include treasurer of both Noosa and District Landcare and Country Noosa.
