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Welcome from the new Chairman
I am delighted to have been appointed by the Board of Directors as Chairman of
the Burnett Mary Regional Group.
The Australian and Queensland Governments, as well as some private investors,
have tasked the Group to work with the community to improve the quality of our
environment. This is a very important job. Without a healthy environment, we
cannot have a healthy and sustainable community and economy. Our soils, water,
air and marine environments form the very basis for industries and businesses
which keep our country productive and our community healthy.
Since its inception, the Group has made remarkable progress and achieved some
fantastic results. I pay tribute to the commitment of the previous Chairman,
Russell Stewart, and thank the Directors and staff for their hard work.
However, there is no time for complacency. We must continually search for ways
to improve our operation, how we work with the groups and landholders that deliver
the projects on the ground and to assess the environmental outcomes we are achieving.
In the coming month, the Board and BMRG staff will focus on creating strong partnerships
so that together we can deliver better and long term environmental outcomes.
The Burnett Mary region has an exciting future, and can benefit from opportunities
not available to many other regions. Our Group is at the forefront of securing
environmental offsets for different clients, with our commercial arm Earthtrade
going from strength to strength. Importantly, we have achieved international
recognition with the successful nomination of the Great Sandy Biosphere, a status
which brings many benefits to the community. And because the community owns the
Biosphere, we will be engaging with the Councils on how best to create value from
this nomination.
We have built a network of motivated people and groups who are committed to finding
better environmental solutions – such as graziers, canefarmers, landcare and catchment
groups, Councils, universities and community volunteers. Solutions are wonderful,
it is the implementation of the solutions that matters. Each of us can make a
difference, from small things big things grow.
I look forward to finding out what steps you are taking to improve the beautiful
environment we are living in. We will be setting up a feedback mechanism shortly
- so watch this space!
Dr Evelyne Meier
Chairman
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