The Australian Greens have called on the Federal Government to urgently reform its Caring for Our Country program because it is having a negative impact on the community's ability to carry out land repair activities.

Senator Rachel Siewert speaking on the tabling of a report of committee inquiry into Natural Resource Management programs, initiated by the Greens, said the inquiry showed that the Government's program needs changing urgently.

"The committee inquiry highlighted many problems with Caring for Our Country which need to be fixed if we're to maintain and improve the level of activity and energy in the community for landcare and land management," Senator Siewert said.

'Caring for our Country' is undermining regional groups and community involvement, lacks accountability and has a flawed assessment process. The targets don't translate to local or regional targets. The competitive process alienates partners and does not facilitate the development of projects - these were just some of the findings of the inquiry.

"I'm deeply concerned about the future of natural resource management in this country. Funding has been cut to a large number of land management groups, there is less activity out there and people are dropping out because they are sick of the lack of support, poor funding, lack of transparency and the centralised approach," she said.

"The Government threw the baby out with the bath water in bringing in this program. They need to act to change it before regional infrastructure and support disappears and all the hard work on landcare and natural resource management is lost.

"We know that we need massive land repair at the landscape scale and that this can only be done with community commitment and involvement. The Government must act to address the current problems and refocus the program," Senator Siewert concluded.

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