More than 60 people from the community gathered on 18 September to brainstorm a vision for Noosa, as representatives of the Noosa Biosphere community sector boards.

Now almost three months later and after much background work, the Noosa Biosphere Limited is about to become a legal entity and it is time to put this vision into play.

The key difference between the Noosa Biosphere and the other 500 plus biosphere sites around the world is the people. “Many of the other biospheres are pristine landscapes where substantial human settlement interaction has not held such a prominent role, such as Uluru”, says Chair of the Noosa Biosphere Limited Michael Donovan. 

The quality of interplay between our community and the Noosa landscape has earned the Noosa Biosphere a special note from UNESCO as a benchmark site. This is based on Noosa Council’s original Community Sector Board model dating back to 1992 that comprised economic, social, cultural and environment boards. Under the current structure, representation from the sustainable tourism sector and from the education, learning and development quadrant of our community have been added.

“We’ve been focused on business prosperity in the region so our Economic Board has largely been talking in terms of tangible projects,” says Anne Lawrence who represents the Economic Board as part of the Governance Board.

“Paramount to business prosperity is the support of the new knowledge and creative industries, as well as supporting our traditional sectors."  "We will be building upon our already successful activities such as the Noosa Clever Networks and Noosa Creative Alliance initiatives."

“Fundamentally we all need to understand the implications of defining and working with sustainable limits and the interrelationship with economic development” she says.

Other Boards have also dived into the job in the lead-up to a formal structure. “The Culture Board has identified six hot tasks to achieve within five years,” says Peter Homan, director representing the active cultural community. These include:

** Establishing an interactive new media Biosphere Interpretation Centre.

** Developing innovative methods of cultural documentation including an interactive website, engaging new media tools and community seminars, symposiums and lectures.

** Establishing a biennial ‘Green Art’ conference that is on the national calendar of valued activities.

** Facilitating a number of innovative cultural eco-tourism projects unique to the region.

** Producing a monthly podcast series ‘Inside the Biosphere’ disseminated through international sites.

** Facilitating a dialogue and collaborative cultural projects between national and international biospheres.

Since February, 2008, when Noosa was ratified as a UNESCO biosphere site, the nominee Governance Board have held three informal meetings to get their processes in order and the Sector Boards have each given around the same time investment towards, building a solid base for Noosa Biosphere Limited as the true official biosphere body.

Taking into account the dramatic impact of amalgamation and the legalities involved in establishing a Council-owned entity to manage the biosphere, indicated by UNESCO as their preferred model, the people power behind this initiative has indeed already gained traction.

A Report by The Mole