The Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) was set up by the Australian Government in 1997 to help restore and conserve Australia's environment and natural resources. Since then, considerable numbers of community groups and organisations have received funding for environmental and natural resource management projects.
The NHT provides funding for environmental activities at a:
It also has been a partner in funding of projects identified by the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) and subsequently the funding of projects within the context of the Natural Resource Management regions.
A Natural Resource Management region is a region defined by the Australian Commonwealth, state and territory governments - 56 of which derived from assessments related to the selections made for the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) priority regions. The Australian National Land and Water Resources Audit data provided the groundwork for creating the regions. This included information on regions significantly affected by salinity and water quality, and regions where there was potential for cost-effective preventative action.
The National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) started in 2000 and 2001 and is ending its current funding round in 2008.