JIM FAGAN
Noosa Council wants a review of its management arrangements with Noosa Biosphere Reserve.
At its meeting on Monday decided to form a working group consisting of Mayor Noel Playford and Councillors Bob Abbot, Frank Pardon and Tony Wellington, to oversee the new deal. It also decided Crs Pardon and Wellington should be directors on the board of Noosa Biosphere Ltd (NBL). Since amalgamation, NBL has been a company owned by the Sunshine Coast Council. Now that ownership is back in Noosa, the Council, as Mr Playford made clear, wants to know what it can achieve for Noosa and what local communities want. “We’ve all seen in the past few years just how strongly our community feels about its right to have a say in what happens here. “This is our opportunity of getting much more community involvement in biosphere reserve activities and projects and a much greater understanding of what can be achieved.” Deputy Mayor Bob Abbot said this was an “exciting time for this council and the community. It’s a very new and very great opportunity to build a project around the Noosa Biosphere Reserve as a signature of approval of not only what we have done in the past but as a guiding point to what we can do in the future “It’s an opportunity no one will ever get again. It is time to get it right and do it properly. “ A tribute to the work of Biosphere Reserve volunteers in the past six years was made by Cr Frank Wilkie. “They’ve been the ones working to foster a broader understanding of the Noosa Biosphere reserve, raised its profile nationally and internationally, forged community partnerships, and created a body of work that forms the solid foundation for this next phase,” he said. “There’s been a deep appreciation of the expertise and efforts of the existing Noosa Biosphere governance and sector board volunteers as being an integral part of the feedback needed for this community-wide review. “There’s also been gracious and honest recognition by the board members that much more can be done to increase community understanding.” Noosa’s Biosphere Reserve status was awarded by UNESCO in 2007, recognising Noosa as a site of excellence where the community comes together to find the best ways of living and working sustainably in a beautiful environment.
