About the Byron Environment Centre
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BEC logo

Who we are

Byron Environment Centre Inc is a non-profit incorporated body spreading environmental information and supporting earth-healing projects in the Byron Shire.

The BEC serves as a contact point, focused meeting place and resource centre, giving technical and campaign support to members and to other groups in the area.

Join us - we need
your support

The BEC needs new members to maintain its strength and assist with its Earth-healing work in the Byron Community.

For more information about membership, click here.

Volunteers wanted

We depend on volunteers to keep the BEC running. If you would like to help, call Nino on (02) 6684 5390 or send us an email

How to contact us

Our office is at Mullumbimby Railway Station 2 Prince Street, Mullumbimby 2482.We also have an information kiosk in Railway Park in Byron Bay. Phone/Fax: (02) 6684 2272Postal address: PO Box 782, Byron Bay, NSW 2481 Australia.

Email:
byronenvironmentcentre@tpg.com.au

Site last updated: Friday, November 25, 2011

Donations

We would be very grateful for donations since we have no regular income from other sources.

Our bank details are

The Southern Cross Credit Union

Account Name: Byron Environment Centre

Account No: 83866

BSB: 802-185

 

 

  

Who we are
The Byron Environment Centre (BEC) is an incorporated body that has continuously operated as environmental information and resource provider in Byron Shire since 1989.

It serves as a contact point and meeting place and gives technical and campaign support to other groups in the area. Because of Byron's natural beauty, the region is under constant threat from developers and other commercial interests.

The continuing presence of the BEC ensures that the environmental values of the area are not forgotten. For example we are trustees of a segment of the Cumbebin Wetland Sanctuary just behind the Byron Market site. Rehabilitating and caring for this wetland remnant is one of the highlights of being involved with the BEC.

Our aims and objectives
To promote a recognition that all life forms are interconnected; 

To create non-sexist forms of organisation and decision-making which are non-competitive, non-hierarchical and reflect a new democracy which is process orientated (consultative), co-operative and empowering of all participants; 

To promote and support the healing and conservation of the environment along sound ecological guidelines; 

To further public awareness and community conscience of environmental issues of local, national and international significance; 

To carry out surveys and research in furtherance of the Centre's objectives; 

To print, publish or disseminate any information newspaper, periodical, books or leaflets for the promotion of the Centre's objectives; 

To subscribe to, become a member or co-operate with, establish or support other associations with similar aims and objectives; 

To promote and support (objective and) rational initiatives and proposed developments which are able to co-exist with and are sensitive to the natural environment; 

To apply, take up and accept grants, subsidies, donations, and gifts of money and all types of property; 

To make donations for charitable or socially or environmentally useful purposes; 

To acknowledge and support the role that Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have played and continue to play as custodians of the land; 

To promote and support gender equity, racial equality, non-materialistic and peaceful settlement of disputes, egalitarianism, preservation of diversity and basic ecological systems, conservation of natural resources in the Byron  District and elsewhere; 

To promote an empathy with nature and all life forms and an understanding of the interconnectedness of all life processes as an essential element in the process of social transformation. Incorporating an ecologically sustainable vision which recognises these principles in relation to the natural environment and their worth, seven generations hence.  

The Activities of the BEC
Projects:

  • Binyabutt pocket ashtrays

  • Cumbebin Wetland Sanctuary

Fundraising:

  • Raffle for funding further projects at the Wetland Sanctuary Wetland Art Exhibition

  • Environmental film nights

  • Regular market stall at Byron Market.

BEC has Representatives working on:

  • Yelgun festival site proposal

  • Low cost housing

  • Coastal Issues

  • Marine Park

  • Solid and liquid waste management

  • Arakwal native title

  • Planning and submissions on strategic planning policy

  • Highway Coalition

  • Northern Rivers community partnership

  • Sandhills Estate

  • Local Exchange Trading System

  • BEC Volunteer coordination

  • Belongil Estuary

  • Monitoring of bat nest boxes to reduce mosquitoes

  • Stormwater - Binyabutts

  • Bush Regeneration

  • Wetland Sanctuary Boardwalk

  • Water management

  • Sewage issues

Grants application for:

  • Administration and Wetland Sanctuary Boardwalk

  • Wetland Educational tours

We currently occupy two spaces
The Kiosk in Railway Park is our public face in Byron Bay and Binyabutt HQ.

Our Campaign office, resource centre, and library is located at the Mullumbimby railway station in Station Street.

Railway Park Kiosk
The Byron Environment Centre information kiosk in Railway park provides a space for local groups who need a public contact and meeting point. The space is also HQ for the Binyabutt project.

Railway park Kiosk opensThe original structure was provided by The East Coast Blues and Roots Festival, at the behest of longtime Byron resident Paul McCarthy, and their input into this community facility is gratefully acknowledged. Also gratefully acknowledged are Danza Vidler, loving Arakwal artist of the Kiosk murals and the BEC volunteers who built the panels.

The Byron Environment Centre manages the renovated facility on behalf of the community, as a community facility for community activities only. The following is the [draft] interim management plan under which the kiosk operates:

Governing Ethics
The kiosk is provided as a community resource, to be occupied by BEC and/or any other community group volunteers who wish to conduct community activities (defined below).

The kiosk is owned by the community of Byron Shire. It is not to be used for personal or corporate profit by any group (including the BEC), but may be used for community fundraising purposes.

Proposed Community Activities
The kiosk is suitable for the following types of activities:

  • Environmental and social education campaigns (e.g. water-reduction and stormwater-improvement education). Dissemination of information through personal presence and permanent notice-board.

  • Fundraising for community activities, by any bona fide (nonprofit, non-religious and nonpolitical) community group. It is not intended that any group should conduct constant or long-term fundraising at the Kiosk.

  • Encouragement and cultivation of Railway Park Arts Scene, including buskers and performance arts.

  • Community Access

Any bona fide independent community group, i.e. one based in Byron Shire and operating on a non-profit, non-religious and non-political basis, can use the Kiosk for dispensing (or BEC open Kioskcollecting) information for the community, fundraising for community purposes or performance arts.

There will be no charge for use of the Kiosk by community groups, but all groups are asked to keep the Kiosk neat and tidy, and may be asked to contribute to maintenance costs if thisbecomes necessary.

To avoid misuse and/or conflicts between group operations at the Community Kiosk, the BEC will manage the kiosk and limit the distribution of keys to responsible community representatives. The BEC can be contacted on 6684 2272 for inquiries or bookings for the Kiosk.

BEC contact details are:

Disclaimer
Views expressed by individual contributors to this web site, or published on linked web sites, are not necessarily those of the Byron Environment Centre Inc or its members. Links to other web sites are provided in the interest of more widely disseminating views and information about issues of environmental concern and do not necessarily imply BEC support for, or agreement with a particular organisation or point of view.

Information on this web site about climate change and sustainability has been sourced from our own resources, from respected scientific research organisations, from government departments, and from other reputable environmental organisations.

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