The opening of the third application window for Landscape Actions within the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) has been announced.

Landscape Actions are targeted measures that focus on issues such as invasive species management, encroaching scrub, threatened species and water quality protection.

These Landscape Actions have been designed to target environmental issues, which have been highlighted in the scorecards for results-based payments and are causing a reduction in the score achieved. 

Environment

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon said these actions "are and continue to be important complementary environmental actions available under the ACRES Co-operation approach", which is available to farmers in defined high priority geographical areas.

"They help participants to improve the habitat quality of their land, which may in turn increase the score of that land, resulting in a higher payment for the participant," Minister Heydon said."Following the encouraging levels of applications received for the first and second application windows, I am pleased to announce the opening of this third application window just weeks after the second batch of approvals for the second application window have issued."The final specifications are available on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's website.

ACRES Co-operation Project participants can apply for Landscape Actions through their Co-operation Project Team.

Landscape Actions

Landscape Actions must not be undertaken in advance of receiving the approval letter to allow for full screening and pre-approval validations.

The first Landscape Actions application window opened on July 18, 2025 with a closing date of September 30, 2025.

The second application window, from February 11, 2026 to May 29, 2026, saw approvals issuing in two separate batches, the second issuing in soft copy on July 30 with hard copies issuing on August 4.

The third application window is now open.