EDAP - Tamborine Mountain 'Sustainability Action Plan' Launched
The Tamborine Mountain Sustainability Group is pleased to announce the launch of the
Sustainability Action Plan for Tamborine Mountain
On August 20, 2011 at the Zamia Theatre in North Tamborine, the Tamborine Mountain Sustainability Group, with the generous support of the Scenic Rim Regional Council, hosted a screening of the award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness, documenting the problems with globalisation and identifying relocalisation as a community solution to the many problems it creates.
After the film the community discussed the lessons to be applied in our own community and the Sustainability Action Plan for Tamborine Mountain was launched. Copies of the plan were distributed to community members and a vigorous discussion about priorities and strategies followed.
The plan will prove a valuable community resource as Tamborine Mountain residents respond to the many challenges posed by rising energy costs, rising costs of living, and economic instability resulting from diminishing fossil fuels and climate change.
How the plan was created
In 2010 a group of people living on Tamborine Mountain came together to find ways of creating a more sustainable future for our community. We had deep concerns about rising costs of living, our local economy, climate change, the depletion of the world’s non-renewable resources and the degradation of our soils, air, water and oceans. We realised that changes were necessary if we were to move into the future with a sense of optimism. As individuals we felt overwhelmed by the scale of what needed to be done and felt we could make little difference. But we were inspired by the Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins, documenting towns like ours that were already acting together to create stronger local economies and more resilient communities. Our confidence grew that Tamborine Mountain was ideally suited to begin the transition to a re-localised, sustainable community.
Throughout that first year, our Sustainability Group organised public film evenings, discussion groups and Sustainable Living workshops, giving rise to many conversations in the community. We acknowledged our fears about a challenging future that could be very different from the present. We took courage by facing those fears together and began to imagine what a truly sustainable future could be like on Tamborine Mountain. Together we identified steps necessary to build a more resilient mountain community.
Drawing on these discussions, The Tamborine Mountain Sustainability Group compiled and developed a draft community Sustainability Action Plan. Before the release of the plan to the community, an early draft was circulated to a number of local leaders in various fields for their thoughts and suggestions, which have enhanced the document you see today.
We acknowledge the invaluable contributions made by many Tamborine Mountain residents in the creation of this working document for our community to use during the challenging times ahead. It is still very much a work in progress, and its recommendations must evolve as the challenges unfold. Our hope is that sharing the vision we have developed so far will spark off further ideas, conversations and initiatives in the community. We trust it will prove instructive, useful and ultimately reassuring: that together we can face these considerable challenges and build a strong, connected, resilient community that continues to be a wonderful place in which to live.
This evolving plan will benefit immensely from continued input from the entire community, and we invite everyone who lives here to share in this ongoing collaborative effort.
For more information on the Tamborine Mountain Sustainability Group, visit www.transitionmountain.net
Email: info@transitionmountain.net
