Four Far Northern enterprises have together won a Queensland award for exploring ways councils can help protect habitat for threatened species.

Planz Town Planning, Kelly Reaston Development and Property Services, Terrain NRM and the Far North Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils (FNQROC) have won the Planning Institute of Australia’s Queensland Award for Excellence in Improving Planning Processes.

Judges commended the teamwork involved in “all parties stepping outside their usual networks and cross-collaborating to bravely go beyond traditional planning measures”.

See the ‘The Role of Local Government in the Preservation and Recovery of Threatened Species and Ecological Communities’.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said local governments were playing a valuable role in threatened species habitat protection.

“This project was all about bringing together the region’s local government town planners, threatened species recovery teams and traditional owners to share knowledge on the region’s threatened species and on local government’s possible roles in protecting their habitats,’’ he said.

“The initiative was funded by Terrain NRM and managed by local government and their consultants, making the outcomes a great fit for local government delivery.”

The award-winning project includes 11 recommendations for greater involvement by local government, and it identifies possible partners and resources.

FNQROC’s executive officer Darlene Irvine said the project laid out a clear vision for the region.

“By stepping outside traditional land use planning approaches, it gives direction to the entire spectrum of community and local government efforts and actions in the species recovery space, and it will be of great value in guiding future investment and action,’’ she said.

The project is part of Terrain NRM’s Building Rainforest Resilience Program, which is working with landholders, threatened species recovery groups and all levels of government to improve rainforest habitat in priority areas which are home to endangered southern cassowaries, Mabi forest or littoral rainforest.