Cassinia Environmental: 2023 Winner – Thriving environment
The Natural Agriculture Community model developed by Cassinia Environmental brings agriculture, biodiversity, and community together on a large scale. Cassinia addresses the competing interests of agriculture and biodiversity with a land-management model that maintains agricultural production at scale with enough human resources to maintain and enhance crucial biodiversity.
The project brings people into landscape-management that promote agricultural, nature, and community outcomes, while seeking significant co-benefits around Indigenous aspirations, animal welfare, and carbon.
The model, being developed on Cassinia Environmental's Rokewood property, uses a 'farm covenant' concept to create a binding legal instrument for high-quality conservation on the property. The model encourages community input with multiple ownerships over land, and a collective farming and biodiversity management plan that is effective and efficient.