In the last five years there has been increasing concern about the environmental condition of inland Australia, particularly western New South Wales. Loss of vegetation cover and soil, salination of soils and waters have led to a decline in economic productivity in the pastoral industries. These changes, together with the visible decline in environmental quality has led to a reappraisal in the approach to land use.

In a co-operative effort between government departments and the community a number of initiatives have been developed which are not only assisting land users in protecting their assets, but are also ensuring that wildlife habitat lost from western New South Wales is slowly replaced. There are many different groups and programmes established to counter the decline of land condition, including Salt Action, Green River Bank Project, New South Wales Tree Forum, Trees on Farms, Disappearing Islands Committee, Dunecare, Total Catchment Management Committees, Murray-Darling Community Advisory Committee and Landcare Groups. The roles of these groups/ programmes are explained and some of the landcare actions taken by them described. It is suggested that many of these actions may assist in the rehabilitation of wildlife habitat and native fauna in inland New South Wales.