Action Plan Implementation
Let’s Make the Biodiversity Strategy Happen!
The Lagoon Society is taking the lead in implementing the the new Sunshine Coast Biodiversity Strategy together with many groups including the Sunshine Coast Wildlife Project, the Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden Society, The Pender Harbour Wildlife Society, The Pacific Salmon Foundation, The South Coast Conservation Program, The Sargeant Bay Society and the Sunshine Coast Natural History Society. We hope that many other groups will soon join in.
The Nature School Program and many of our educational outreach projects, such as the recent collaboration with Jay Walls at the Pender Harbour High School and the Lieutenant Governor's Stewards of the Future Program are also all directed at addressing the goals of the SCBS.
We encourage scientific monitoring through many different workshops and the annual BioBlitz, which we have been running for seven years. As a result of our collaborative work, we have collected an enormous amount of extremely valuable species data.
With the Sunshine Coast Wildlife Project we have also helped administer numerous research projects from mapping important wetlands up in the Caren Range to monitoring amphibian, reptile and small mammal populations, and a major project to preserve the endangered Western Painted Turtle through the building of nesting beaches.
All of these initiatives are fun hands-on projects which help to contribute to our overall understanding of the biodiversity of the Sunshine Coast and to reach the goals set out in the strategy.
Why Develop an Action Plan?
We want to ensure that the Sunshine Coast maintains a connected and diverse network of habitats and species that provide all of us with clean air, clean water, and sustainable resources into our future. But we’re not just talking about these things; we’re taking action.
While undertaking the drafting of the Action Plan, we realized that a certain fluidity is required when approaching biodiversity conservation, and that a strict "plan" is not a feasible approach. Thus, we are creating The Action Plan Database - a collection of dynamic documents that will help our community realize the resources needed, giving us a clear path forward to achieving the goals set in the Biodiversity Strategy. As we move forward, it will help us indicate what works well within our community, and will help us to keep track of successes.
The Action Plan Database is being co-created as a dynamic collection of documents
Rather than having a static, unchanging document, the Action Plan has been developed to provide room for commentary, criticism, and changes in the future. Development of the Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan Database is being led by volunteers drawn from various communities and organizations, and organized into three teams (each team will focus on two of the strategy’s goals).
These volunteers are using a common template, best practices from other jurisdictions, good science, and a lot of enthusiasm and creativity to identify and flesh out the actions needed to implement the Biodiversity Strategy.
If you would like to learn more about the process, or would like to get involved with the on-going creation of the Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan Database, contact our chair Michael Jackson at
