Plants, people and planning: integrating national botanical information and regional vegetation planning and management

The Plants, People and Planning project considered how the information held in national botanical databases is used in regional vegetation planning and management. The specific objectives of the project were to examine the accessibility and usefulness of a range of national botanical datasets for regional groups in enabling them to incorporate botanical information into vegetation management planning, to identify processes or fundamental elements that need to be in place to enhance the use of available data (including the identification of any obstacles to its use), and to provide advice to the Commonwealth on how it can improve access to, and use of, national botanical datasets for vegetation management planning. The results clearly indicate that the integration of botanical information into vegetation management planning and onground activities at a regional level is critical to successful development of sustainable land management practices that address both production and conservation outcomes. Although practitioners recognise that making full use of botanical information will help to ensure outcomes, end users from a broad range of agencies currently show little uptake and use of national-level datasets, preferring to use local data sources. A range of strategies for improving the use of national databases focus on a combination of currently available and trusted information conduits, along with some new positions and practices.