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Landcare an international concern

Sue Marriot, Mary Johnson, Victoria Mack Secretariat for International Landcare Inc Phone: 61 3 5572 2555 Email: vmack@silc.com.au The Secretariat for International Landcare Inc (SILC) was established in 1998 to facilitate educational and technical exchanges, dialogue and networks between the Australian environmental movement and its international counterparts. SILC's Board is made up of Sue Marriott, Mary Johnson, Lyn Milne, Christine Lever, Victoria Mack, Stuart Hill and Julian Cribb. Since 1998, the Secretariat for International Landcare (SILC) has conducted large and small group study tours of Australian Landcare and natural resource management for men and women from a growing number of countries including: Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Philippines, Kenya, USA, China, New Zealand, Cuba, Germany, Iceland, France, Philippines and Thailand. Study tours are readily organised in all parts of Australia, across diverse regions and climatic zones which provides scope to tailor tours and training experiences to meet a wide range of needs. Delegates participating in SILC programs meet a cross-section of Australian natural resource management and Landcare specialists as well as grass-roots members. They engage with community and political leaders, government officials, and education, science and industry and business specialists. They are exposed to field successes and failures, discuss the do's and don'ts and participate in highly professional facilitated workshops. They are shown Landcare's innate egalitarianism, trust and social role. SILC is convinced that study tours concentrating on successful environmental practices pay off: removing busy people briefly from their professional responsibilities, passing on knowledge, inspiring new ideas, developing leadership and generating fellowship within the groups themselves. There is no shortage of technical research on global environmental problems. The real challenge, however, appears to be how to mobilise the hearts, minds and will of human beings to engage in implementing technical solutions within a framework of sustainable development and social harmony. National Landcare Conference - Darwin 2003 SILC has been contracted by the organising committee to design and deliver the pre and post conference study tour program for the Conference. SILC plans to work closely with country groups interested in sending delegates to the Conference.