Open Letter to Noosa Council

The current funding deed under which Noosa Council wholly finances the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation (NBRF) terminates on Saturday 30 June and the next day, 1 July, a new three-year agreement will kick in.

This open letter to Councillors is based on the reality that, if NBRF will not reform itself, Noosa Council’s only pathway to encourage reform is to restrict ratepayer funding of the organisation until its self-appointed Board and membership address significant deficiencies in structure, management and operations.

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Dear Cr Wellington,

This open letter is written to ask you and your fellow Councillors to address and remedy the vexed issues surrounding the role, structure and operations in our community of the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation (NBRF).

It is now four years since NBRF was established by Noosa Council as the governing body of the Biosphere Reserve to fulfil three interconnected functions defined by UNESCO, which are:

• Conservation – to protect cultural diversity and biodiversity.
• Development – to foster economic and human development that is environmentally and socially sustainable and culturally appropriate.
• Logistic support – to facilitate demonstration projects, environmental education and sustainable development education and training, research, and monitoring.

Open Noosa argues that, at least partly as a result of a limiting homegrown Constitution, NBRF is failing to meet UNESCO’s expectations and goals, which also make clear that an important characteristic is to involve local communities in Biosphere Reserve management, which the NBRF does not do.

In addition, instead of developing steadily as a broad-based entity “protecting cultural diversity and biodiversity” and “fostering economic and human development”, NBRF has emerged as a controversial organisation that does little more than receive funding from Noosa Council to provide grants to entities it considers worthy.

The broader aspirations of UNESCO have been lost and connectivity with the community – and the support of the community – have not been attained.

We are also concerned that NBRF has failed to establish key performance indicators and does not seem to have acted to reconcile its expenditure of ratepayers’ money against actual achievements.

Many questions have been raised about NBRF’s unrepresentative structure, its lack of accountability to the community and its disproportionate funding of entities related to directors (it has been estimated that about 80 percent of grants since its inception have been awarded to such entities).

Bearing in mind these factors, and recognising that, although Noosa Council almost wholly funds NBRF, it cannot direct it, we ask the Mayor and Councillors not to approve the new three-year Funding Deed due to commence on 1 July 2018 until NBRF enters into an acceptable and legally enforceable undertaking to reform unsatisfactory elements of its Constitution, structure, management and operations to effectively align it with the functions and characteristics that UNESCO recommends.

As they relate to NBRF, these elements cover:

An undemocratic Constitution – Although the community funds NBRF through rates and levies, NBRF’s tightly framed Constitution places the organisation beyond formal community representation or influence, except in that Noosa Council provides the bulk of its income.

A closed election process – NBRF directors are appointed by NBRF directors and members, who consist entirely of former NBRF directors – a closed and self-perpetuating system from which the community is excluded.

Weak public transparency – Noosa Council and NBRF have never disclosed the full cost of NBRF to ratepayers, the process by which directors are appointed, the way in which decisions are made, how NBRF grants are spent and acquitted, nor other aspects of NBRF management, process and operations which ratepayers – as ultimate funders of the organisation – have a right to know.

Inadequate accountability – NBRF is unable to be directed by Noosa Council and has demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to be fully accountable to the Council. Furthermore there is no management plan (despite this being mandated in the Constitution), no strategic plan nor key performance indicators available.

Lack of community representation – despite early promises that NBRF would be “returned to the community” and given “the opportunity to elect its representatives”*, and despite UNESCO’s own guidelines, the community has been effectively excluded from NBRF.

Request to Noosa Council

Given that Noosa Council substantially funds NBRF, yet cannot direct it as an autonomous organisation, we ask the Mayor and Councillors to exercise the one clear pathway they possess to encourage reform: that is, not to approve a new three-year Funding Deed (due to commence on 1 July 2018) until NBRF enters into an acceptable and legally enforceable undertaking to reform unsatisfactory elements of its Constitution, structure, management and operations.

Bettina Walter and Desiré Gralton, OPEN NOOSA

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* “Come de-amalgamation, Noosa Biosphere governance will hopefully be returned to the community [which] will then have the opportunity to elect its representatives, and utilise the Biosphere Reserve status as a catalyst and framework for a new wave of community-led initiatives.” [‘Musical chairs at NBL’, The Gumshoe No 40, Tony Wellington (ed)]