The Art4Agriculture Young Eco Champion program for 2012/13 will train a team of 5 young natural resource management professionals from Southern Rivers region of NSW. They will be trained to develop leadership and communication skills and become local faces of sustainable primary production and natural resource management. See Erin Lake our 2011 Young Eco Champion in action here.

Eco Champions will work with Young Farmer Champions to present Archibull Prize activities in 15 schools throughout the region using a range of authentic and contemporary learning tools that allow young people to explore the economic, environmental and social challenges of sustainable agriculture and biodiversity conservation activities through the ‘Archibull Prize‘ competition.

The Archibull Prize 2013 will see the five Young Eco Champions actively engage with students in their local schools to explore and understand the challenge of producing food and fibre sustainably. The student groups will enter their project work and artwork to win the ‘Archibull Prize’ which uses creative arts and multimedia to engage the students and the wider community in discussions about agricultural sustainability and natural resource management. The objective is to bridge the rural urban divide giving rural producers a better understanding of their urban customers and in turn, the urban communities gaining an insight into modern agricultural production and the efforts that rural producers undertake to protect the natural resource base. Click  here to see an example of the type of resources you can create for your visit to schools.

If you answer yes to all the following questions we invite you to follow the link below and find out how you can express your interest…

· Are you aged between 18 and 35 years?
· Are you passionate about natural resource management and sustainable food and fibre production and consumption?
· Do you want to share your story with the next generation?
· Are you interested in being trained to speak confidently to the community and engage with farmers and young people?
· Do you want to better understand the diversity of land managers and their priorities?
· Do you want to work side by side with land managers to deliver healthy ecosystem outcomes?
· Do you want to inspire other young people to participate in managing natural resources?

· Do you want to work with the  next generation of local leaders?
· Do you want to become part of a support network of equally passionate young rural farmers and eco champions?

Visit the Young Eco Champions website for more information.