Support
CASE FOR SUPPORT
The National Centre for Outdoor Risk and Readiness is a collaborative initiative by Outward Bound Australia for outdoor practitioners across Australia.
Join us in making outdoor adventures in Australia safer in the face of an ever changing climate.
Millions of individuals, groups, school students, families and tourists visit and enjoy Australia’s natural environment.
However, the impacts of climate change are adding significant risk to these fundamental life experiences and to the outdoor practitioners who enable them.
Our Purpose
So that all Australians and visitors, wherever they live and whatever their age, ability and cultural background, are able to enjoy and benefit from being in the outdoors and feel safe in doing so.
Key
Statistics
OUTDOOR PROGRAMS & CAMPS
Evidence shows school outdoor education programs and camps significantly reduce anxiety and increase confidence.
50% INCREASE IN CREATIVITY
Studies show: A mere four days backpacking in nature improved people’s creativity by 50%
MEMORY IMPROVEMENT
A simple experiment concluded that walking through nature before completing a memory test improved memory scores by 20%
Protect our
National Parks
National Parks provide a major boost to Australia’s economy, with nature-based tourism bringing $23 billion into the country every year.
By contrast, the estimated annual health services value of Australia’s national parks is around $145 billion ($100 billion USD) a year.
Annual
Park Visits
More than 180,000 students in Victoria alone visit parks each year to participate in education
programs.
Australians spent a total of 54.5 million nights caravan & camping in the year ending March 2019, a 6.5% increase over 2020.
35.5 million people visit NSW’s national parks each year. In Victoria, there are 50 million visits to national, state and metropolitan parks every year, 45 million visits to piers and jetties and 17 million visitor nights from tourists.
The challenge
The impacts of climate change are being felt across Australia causing significant disruption, risk and added costs.
Outdoor education & recreation practitioners provide, for many, a safe place to learn about, & experience the outdoors which empowers them to explore the environment themselves.
These practitioners are generally located near their local outdoor environment and draw heavily on their knowledge of that
location. Consequently, they are dispersed.
Additionally, the non-profit nature of most of the sector means there are limited resources to support research, capacity and skills development.
This inhibits the ability to predict, prepare, respond, learn and adapt to be more resilient and safer in the face of a changing climate.
WITHOUT ACTION
The risk to staff, schools, clients and communities will increase and there is an increased probability that people will avoid engaging with the outdoors – with consequent negative health and well-being impacts.
Landslides
Bushfires
Environmental risks
Flooding
Key outcomes
The key outcomes of the NatCORR include:
In the near term (less than a year 1 year) - Increases in capacity (resources, tools, physical infrastructure and technology) and capability (knowledge, skills etc; improvements in sector practices; building relationships and networks across the sector and with key public and research partners).
Increases in the capacity predict risk & exposure; plan for & mitigate risks; respond to events; learn and adapt; strengthening of the sector’s collaboration, voice & reputation.
In the longer term (3-5 years) we will see increases in the resilience of organisations across the sector, the safety of staff, clients and communities in the outdoors; reductions in risk in the outdoors.
The positive impact
When outdoor education and practitioners can do this, our participants and communities will:
Be able to rely on practitioners being there to help them learn and support them through extreme events
Feel safer
Be more confident to continue to explore the outdoors despite a changing climate
And ultimately, all Australians and visitors, wherever they live and whatever their age, ability and cultural background will be able to continue to enjoy and benefit from being in the outdoors and feel safe in doing so.
We have defined an impact framework including Theory of Change, Guiding Principles and Monitoring and Reporting approach that will provide essential insights into our approach, progress and success. As part of this process, we have identified essential metrics to be monitored and understood the risks we must manage to succeed. We have also undertaken a baseline survey which has informed our approach
Download our Case for support document here:
DONATE
Join us by supporting this important initiative – helping us to prepare and adapt to increasingly volatile conditions in the outdoors.
Tax deductible donations to support NatCORR can be made to The Australian Outward Bound Development Fund (AOBDF). AOBDF is the charitable fundraising subsidiary of Outward Bound Australia.
Donations will make a big difference to the establishment of NatCORR:
- Providing 50% matching funding to the Federal Government grant to build a new multi-purpose Communal Centre to house NatCORR at Outward Bound in Tharwa, ACT.
- Supporting NatCORR’s program of activities: research, training workshops, networking and collaborative problem solving, analytics and information sharing.
- Contributing to NatCORR’s core resourcing, enabling community engagement and momentum for action.