NOOSA BIOSPHERE RESERVE FOUNDATION LTD. PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (Deferred from General Committee Meeting dated 16 June 2025 Item 8.10)

I'm Sunday. Okay, welcome back everybody. We're up to 12.2 Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation limited partnership agreement, which was deferred from the General Committee. We have Ben Derrick, manager of environmental services, here to speak to this report. Ben and Director Kim Rawlings, welcome. Thank you.

Thank you very good afternoon again Councillors. This agenda item deals with a proposed change to the partnership agreement between Noosa Council and the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation. The current agreement expires on 32nd this year. Council has supported the NBRF since its inception in 2015. Has enabled to it deliver a core of objectives. Council. Has provided an annual financial support. The range of financial support has been between approximately $700,000 and $140,000, where it has sat for the previous two years. Where it has sat for the previous two years. The partnership agreement contribution to NBRF is allocated through Council's annual budget process from the Environment Levy. The success of the Noosa Biosphere is intrinsically linked to a successful partnership between the NBRF, Council and a broad spectrum. Of communities. Community groups working together towards common goals. NBRF has played an important role in driving research, creating awareness and supporting initiatives and projects that are aligned with improving the. Noosa YSV credentials. These projects and initiatives fill a vital role in the biosphere community and are beyond the internal resource capacity of Council staff to deliver. NBRF has been able to achieve this through drawing on significant in-kind contribution from current and past board directors as well as a large cohort of willing members of the community. The leveraged expertise this has delivered for the NBRF programs has provided genuine value to Noosa brand. NBRF has consistently met the requirements and obligations of the existing agreement and have spent considerable time in the last two years to review and refine their strategy and annual implementation plans, both of which are presented to Council each year. There is a genuine desire board from to ensure the organisation remains contemporary and at the cutting edge of innovation for life within a biosphere for all of our community. The proposed partnership agreement has been worked through by Council officers and NBRF exec. It is felt to be a balanced supporting agreement that also states a clear expectation that NBRF will endeavour to expand resources for their programs outside of Council resources. The proposed changes clean up some referencing and duplicated wording, provide a revised scope and provide a revised scope of operational expenses. Including operational expenses in the agreement will enable NBRF to focus on they were established to achieve and not have to worry about existing from month to I'll leave with putting forward that the success of the biosphere is intrinsically linked to the success of the NBRF and Council officers believe this is an appropriate agreement to go forward.