The New South Wales Government’s Flying-fox Grants Program: changes in project themes across three funding rounds

Abstract

ABSTRACT The presence of flying-fox camps in settled areas is often a contentious issue for residents and businesses. The Flying-fox Camp Management Policy 2015 sets the framework for land managers in New South Wales (NSW) to work with communities to manage flying-fox camps. To facilitate this, the NSW Government delivered the Flying-fox Grants Program, which provided funds for land managers to prepare and implement flying-fox management plans and undertake community engagement. There were three funding rounds, the first spanning 2016-18, followed by rounds in 2019 and 2020. Each funding round was fully subscribed, totalling 76 grants for 39 recipient organisations. Compared to the first funding round, there was a progressive decline in grants for works involving vegetation removal to create and maintain cleared buffers in the second and third funding rounds. Furthermore, only one grant was awarded for camp dispersal during the first funding round and none in subsequent funding rounds. Rather, the latter two funding rounds contained a greater representation of grants awarded for works aligned with biodiversity conservation objectives, such as replanting of native vegetation and community education, as well as the emergence of grants sought for heat stress mitigations in the subsequent funding rounds. Grants awarded for preparing flying-fox management plans progressed over the course of the program from predominantly camp-specific plans to regionwide management plans. The latter provide land managers with a streamlined approach that allows new flying-fox camps to be incorporated into management planning as they appear.