Scouts Australia and Landcare

Scouts Australia is proud to be associated with Landcare, a uniquely Australian partnership between the community, government and business to ‘do something practical’ about protecting and repairing our environment.

Caring for our environment is central to Scouting. It is even one of the Scout laws. Since Scouting began, young people have been connecting with the outdoors, learning from nature and taking positive action for their local and global environments.

Every year, Scouts across Australia organise and participate in a huge number of environmental activities including erosion prevention works, energy and water saving projects, wildlife monitoring projects, tree plantings and environmental training courses. Scouts can also work towards a variety of environmental awards and achievement badges.

One of these awards is the Landcare badge, which can be earned by participating in approved Landcare activities. To encourage more Scouts to complete the badge, Scouts Australia has recently devised new badge requirements. Youth members can now achieve the badge by attending any three nationally supported Landcare programs over a 12 month period, or by registering with their local Landcare group and participating in 24 hours of service over a 12 month period.

The new requirements will be launched in September to coincide with this year’s Scout Environment Weeks. Scout Environment Weeks (SEW) are a simple yet highly effective concept to encourage Scouts to learn more about our environment and be active locally, whilst working towards some of the many environmental awards available in Scouts.

Throughout September, Scout Groups are encouraged to get in touch with their local Landcare group and get involved!

For more information on Scouting call 1800 SCOUTS or visit www.scouts.com.au.