REGENWA
About Us
Purpose
RegenWA is a West Australian network of farmers and interested stakeholders informed by a farmer-led advisory committee. It supports the application of evidence-based practices that generate on-farm natural capital with beneficial outcomes for the environment, and farming enterprises.
It was established by Perth NRM in 2017 and a separate Company Limited by Guarantee was established in 2024 to manage RegenWA, governed by its own Constitution and Board.
Our ‘why’
To create an inherently productive farming landscape that we are proud to pass on to the next generation.
Our ‘what’
Supporting farmers to implement and share evidence-based regenerative practices that help restore the beneficial natural assets (the ‘natural capital’) on farms, which our food systems depend on.
The benefits of adopting regenerative practices reach far beyond the farms themselves – they create a wealth of public benefit in the form of environmental protection, preservation, and restoration. Positive environmental impacts of adopting regenerative farming practices include:
Building soil biology along with restoring soil chemistry and structure
Less nutrient run‐off affecting our waterway
Increased ecological connectivity for native fauna
Improved food security and sustainable food production
Carbon capture to address climate change threats
What we do
RegenWA is the lead organisation in Western Australia for facilitating collaboration between key stakeholders at a local, regional and state level for regenerative agriculture activities.
These activities include free and affordable field days and workshops, projects, sharing news and research, online educational events and website resources to support the uptake of regenerative agriculture in Western Australia.
Our ‘how’
- Empower (sharing stories, projects, resources and news)
- Connect (through our community)
- Enable (through collaboration with local farmers, grower groups and industry partners)
- Support (knowledge, opportunities, funding)
RegenWA is eager to collaborate with local farmers and industry stakeholders to support projects that align with our Purpose, and actively collaborates with more than 20 organisations linked to food and climate industries across Western Australia.
Check out our range of projects.
The activities undertaken by RegenWA aim to:
- Mitigate against the adverse environmental impacts of farming for the public benefit, by encouraging increasing numbers of farmers to undertake regenerative agriculture, as well as support research to demonstrate the benefits of such practices.
- Address land degradation and declining resilience to climate change, by encouraging the adoption of regenerative practices that improve the natural capital of agricultural land.
- Support sustainable and stable food production to help provide food security for the people of Western Australian, now and into the future.
RegenWA is supported by funding from the Western Australian Government’s State NRM Program, the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, Lotterywest and Commonland and is managed by Perth NRM. It is guided by a Steering Committee of 11 members who are all passionate about regenerative farming and come with a range of skills in business management, farming, marketing, health education, and land management.
Who we are
RegenWA is run by a team of experienced sustainable agriculture professionals, overseen by a board of directors and guided by a steering group of farmers and regenerative farming stakeholders who contribute their knowledge and skills in business management, farming, marketing, health education, and land management.
In 2024, RegenWA became a stand-alone entity, incorporating as a Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG), with a Board of Directors guiding the strategic direction of the program.
RegenWA has a three-tiered structure
Operations Team
The RegenWA Operations Team led by the CEO Keith Pekin.
Keith Pekin – Perth NRM, RegenWA, CEO
Keith is CEO at Perth NRM, a for-purpose organisation in the Natural Resource Management (NRM) sector. Perth NRM collaborates with government, industry stakeholders and community to empower people to have a positive ecological impact.
Keith was instrumental in establishing RegenWA, a network of West Australian farmers who are identifying and sharing leading regenerative practices.
This has since been supported with Perth NRM’s natural capital accounting program, which is establishing methods and standards to verify if a farming practice or system is beneficial for both the farming enterprise and the broader landscape.
Most recently, Keith is championing the most important piece of the puzzle – establishing a collective impact approach for ecosystem restoration, that can be extended to all purpose-driven enterprises involving social benefit and/or behaviour change.
Perth NRM is now recognised as a leading organisation and catalyst for sustainable agriculture, natural capital accounting and impact management.
David Broadhurst – Perth NRM, Senior Manager, Sustainable Agriculture
David grew up exploring the natural environment on South Coast of Western Australia where he developed an appreciation for Australian landscape. A series of outdoor jobs and recreational activities further increased David’s interest.
David graduated from Charles Darwin University with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Ecology and Environmental Biology. Starting his NRM career with the Oyster Harbour Catchment Group as a NRM Officer, David moved into the Agricultural space with South Coast NRM in 2008 where he was a Regional Agricultural Landcare Facilitator and Land & Water Program Manager.
David enjoys working with farmers and support people to incorporate evidence based NRM into their farming businesses.
David is currently Perth NRM’s manager of the Sustainable Agriculture program.
Bonnie Jupp – Program Manager, RegenWA
Bonnie grew up in the Mid West region of Western Australia, where she developed the drive to support farmers build resilient farming systems that have a positive ecological impact.
She currently works at Perth NRM on the RegenWA Program and the Natural Capital Accounting Project conducting on-farm ecological and soil assessments.
She enjoys working with farmers, community groups and all stakeholders involved in sustainable food production and landscape renewal.
Bonnie has previously worked in the broadacre gains sector at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) in Geraldton, and with Western Australian cereal breeding company, InterGrain.
Tibby Tuckett – Sustainable Agriculture Facilitator, Perth NRM
Tibby brings her enthusiasm and passion to the RegenWA team by supporting farmers and rural communities to be more resilient, healthy, and sustainable.
Before joining Perth NRM at the end of 2022, Tibby travelled the world and gained invaluable skills from a range of jobs and experiences.
Tibby studied Zoology at UWA and grew up on a sheep and crop farm in the Great Southern, where her love for agriculture and animals began.
Tibby has been involved in the Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) project and works closely with the RegenWA team to facilitate numerous events and projects within the Swan Region and South-West of WA.
Her dedication to encourage producers and consumers to explore the regenerative agricultural space demonstrates the support and hope of future generations who are wanting to restore the natural world and food production systems.
Jessica Hubeck – Program Assistant Sustainable Agriculture, Perth NRM
Jess grew up in the wheatbelt town of Merredin where her interest in agriculture and passion for the environment began.
She moved to Perth to study a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Botany, and is completing the final year of her degree in 2024.
Jess joined PerthNRM/RegenWA in early 2023 and has enjoyed working with all stakeholders interested in working in the regenerative space.
She looks forward to continuing to be involved in a space which supports sustainability, regenerative practices and our environment.
Steering Advisory Committee
The RegenWA Steering Committee is an advisory group of leading farmers and key industry stakeholders who represent the RegenWA network.
They provide strategic and relevant advice on regenerative agriculture and how RegenWA can broaden the uptake, to restore natural capital in our agricultural systems.The purpose of the Committee is to provide guidance to RegenWA staff in the delivery of the RegenWA Purpose. This includes leading by example in sharing of knowledge and peer-to-peer learning
Dianne Haggerty
Dianne, with her husband Ian, are world renowned for their approach to regenerative agriculture by working with native pastures for their livestock which complements their biological cropping program of over 13,000ha.
Di is regularly traveling nationally and internationally to share her knowledge and experience with the Natural Intelligence Farming approach to regenerative agriculture.
The Haggarty’s are on a mission to facilitate positive global change by rebuilding soils in semi-arid regions and are essential to the RegenWA network of regenerative farmers.
Stuart McAlpine
Stuart is a fourth-generation farmer who owns and manages a 5,000 ha farm in Buntine, Western Australia.
He is a co-founder of the Liebe Group, one of Australia’s premium grower groups.
Stuart has expert knowledge in soil and regenerative agriculture practice and his efforts in natural resource management saw him honoured as a Soil Champion in the International Year of Soil 2015. As a result, he was then added to the Regional Natural Resource Management Leadership Honour Roll in 2016.
He has also been a part of the team that has seen the first “4-returns” regenerative agriculture company in Australia become listed on the ASX. He remains to be a non-executive Director of Wide Open Agriculture Ltd.
Nick Kelly
Nick is a broadacre minimum till cropping farmer, of Holland Track Farm in Newdegate, WA.
The Kelly family’s weather resilient farming system is enhancing soil health, sequestering carbon, reducing erosion, increasing moisture retention, reducing chemical use and improving crop yields.
All while sharing these learning and knowledge with other farmers Australia wide.
Tom Mitchell
Tom farms 20 Hectares North West of Gingin with his wife, Emma and two daughters, Darcie and Grace.
Tom and Emma began developing the farm in November 1999. Their enterprise is comprised of a market garden where they grow pumpkins in the summer and mixed cover crops in the winter and an orchard producing limes and three varieties of mandarin.
Since 2012 they have taken a more biological / regenerative approach to their farming. Their objective is to grow tasty, nutritious food and run a profitable business. Their farming practices aim to maximise soil carbon and biological diversity. They have introduced cover cropping and green manuring to their market garden operation and have drastically reduced the amount of cultivation. They are currently working on increasing the diversity of inter-row species in their orchard as well as increasing the organic matter levels under our trees. They have eliminated the use of all fungicides from our operation and drastically reduced the amount of pesticide use.
Monitoring plant and soil conditions are the keys to the success of their operation. Plant nutrition, soil nutrition, soil moisture are all measured with the aim of growing the healthiest plant possible.
“We farm this way because it is rewarding, enjoyable and it makes sense.”
Wendy Bradshaw
Wendy is a passionate environmentalist who strives to learn more about how we can all farm better with nature.
Her family farm in Tambellup is where she can implement these learnings from her studies including a Bachelor of Land Management and Master’s in Education.
She and has worked at Greening Australia for a decade as well as working with South Coast NRM for four years.
Wendy is connected with her local grower group, the Gillamii Centre and uses her own environmental consultancy business to focus on restoring biodiversity and soil health on farms.
“I see our biggest and vital challenge is understanding and profitably implementing the transition from conventional to biological agriculture.”
Ronnie Duncan
Ronnie has over thirty years experience working in creative communications and is a co-founder and Chairman of Meerkats.
He’s passionate about encouraging a better form of capitalism and acts on this by helping companies to be purpose-led, and by focusing on sectors that can make a disproportionate difference to creating a better world.
For him, the food and agriculture sector offers a great opportunity to do this, as what we consciously choose to eat is one of our most powerful acts – although he recognises that both he and his family depend on good farmers since his own veggies patch is currently unpredictable.
Mitchell East
Mitchell East is a third-generation farmer from the Southern Forests region of Manjimup, farming passionfruit, avocados, sheep and cattle.
With his partner Jennifer they have a keen interest in regenerative farming and have taken a new approach to their passionfruit crop, by building a processing facility on-farm they have been able to utilize 100% of their crop and utilize other farmers’ fruits for value-adding purposes.
This approach to waste has opened up many opportunities to work closely with other farmers and to create value for them out of a resource that has historically been underutilized.
Over the past 8 years Mitchell has developed a keen interest in regional community development and has sat on a number of local, state and federal boards to help share his voice from a ground-up approach. This has given him strong board experience and the opportunity to talk to industry decision-makers and politicians and his experience as a young farmer.
Mitchell is a keen advocate to get young farmers involved in the industry and to share his experience about regenerative farming.
Jacqueline Lahne
CEO of the WA Landcare Network, Jacqueline has served on community boards for over 20 years and is currently a member of the Advisory Committee for Kalgulup Regional Park, Bunbury, and serves on the Selections Panel and the Governance Committee of the National Landcare Network. Much of her career has been spent working for social justice and she considers the regenerative agriculture movement to have a pivotal role in addressing the complex environmental issues impacting our society, not necessarily equitably. Working and volunteering to better align human use and interaction with nature brings her great satisfaction, personally and professionally.
Board of Directors
Stuart McAlpine – Chair, RegenWA
Stuart McAlpine is a fourth-generation farmer who with his wife Leanne, owns and manages a 5,000-hectare farm at Buntine, Western Australia.
Stuart is a co-founder of the Liebe Group, one of Australia’s premium grower groups, and was its inaugural President in 2007. During this time, Stuart has gained extensive experience in research, extension and strategic development of agriculture in Australia.
Stuart instigated the Regional Repopulation Plan with the Shire of Dalwallinu in 2010 and Chaired the Regional Repopulation Advisory Committee (RRAC). He sat on the Perth Working Group Committee associated with the RRAC as deputy Chairperson. The program supported an increase in population in Dalwallinu by around 15%. From this work Stuart has cofounded the Regional Regeneration Alliance, a cross regional impact, not for profit organisation aimed at developing and supporting sustainable land, economic and community regeneration projects utilising collective impact.
Stuart has expert knowledge in soil and regenerative agriculture practice and his efforts in natural resource management saw him honoured as a Soil Champion in the International Year of Soil 2015 and then added to the Regional Natural Resource Management Leadership Honour Roll in 2016 by the Northern Agricultural Catchment Council in Western Australia. He regularly presents at he University of Western Sydney’s Soil Biology Masterclass. Stuart is a committee member for RegenWA a network of committed West Australian farmers and industry stakeholders who are identifying, implementing and sharing innovative land management practices that other farmers can adopt.
Stuart has also been part of the team that has seen the first four return regenerative agriculture company in Australia Wide Open Agriculture Ltd. Listed on the ASX. Stuart also provides lupins and beef for Wide Open Agriculture and its food brand Dirty Clean Food as one of its many regenerative suppliers.
Perth NRM is now recognised as a leading organisation and catalyst for sustainable agriculture, natural capital accounting and impact management.
Glenice Batchelor – Director, RegenWA
Glenice has demonstrated a long-term personal and professional commitment to landcare and natural resource management with extensive experience representing community and working in the industry along with roles in agriculture, biosecurity and local government.
From a farming background, Glenice began her diverse career studying Horticulture at iconic Kings Park aligned to her love of Western Australian plants and the natural environment. She and her husband own a small mixed enterprise on Ballardong Noongar Country at Tammin, with a goal of sustainably increasing biodiversity.
Glenice has a long involvement at strategic level on grassroots boards and organisations including Chairing the grower group, Saltland Pastures Association and the Wheatbelt NRM Regional organisation. She was a founding member and then chair of WA’s NRM Regional Leaders Group and appointed to the Avon River Management Authority and inaugural secretary of the Avon Waterways Committee. She has served as Councillor and President for the Shire of Tammin and represented WALGA as the WA Country member on the Roadside Conservation Committee.
Glenice was awarded the prestigious DAFWA Landcare Professional Award and was a WA finalist in the RIRDC Rural Women’s Award. She was a founding member of Therapeutic Horticulture Australia – understanding the importance of nature and human interaction. In 2019 she was inducted as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Horticulture.
Glenice is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and believes in the importance of strong and ethical governance.
Tom Widenbar – Director, RegenWA
Tom is an experienced environmental professional, having worked across consulting, waste and mining industries. Tom has extensive experience working with the Environmental Protection Act, environmental impact assessments and site environmental management.
Tom is also an elected Councillor at the City of Cockburn, sitting on 7 internal committees and 4 external committees. Tom grew up on an Olive Grove in York where he developed a love for nature and has a keen interest in sustainability as well as reuse and recycling.
Tom holds a Bachelor of Science (Coastal Zone Management) from Curtin University and is currently studying the Australian Institute of Company Directors Course, and an MBA through the University of Central Queensland.
Hannah Lill- Secretary, RegenWA
Hannah comes to the role of Company Secretary at RegenWA Ltd with over 15 years experience in finance and governance roles.
She has worked in the not for profit space for over 4 years and enjoys being part of organisations who have a positive impact and a strong sense of purpose.
Hannah has a passion for protecting the natural environment and is relishing the opportunity to obtain a more in depth understanding of regenerative agriculture.
Hannah holds dual roles, being the Financial Controller at Perth NRM and company secretary for RegenWA Ltd.
Partners
RegenWA is made possible only with the support of our project and funding partners.
RegenWA is eager to collaborate with local farmers and industry stakeholders to support projects that align with our Purpose, and actively collaborates with more than 20 organisations linked to food and climate industries across Western Australia .
RegenWA is one of many organisations, community members, and institutions involved in Perth NRM’s project, developing a collective impact approach to restoring on-farm natural capital.
4 Returns Framework
Commonland’s 4 Returns Framework for landscape restoration is a practical tested system-change framework that can be used by stakeholders to undertake a landscape approach. The “landscape approach” seeks to balance competing stakeholder demands in a mosaic of different management approaches, to supply a full range of natural, social and economic returns.
The 4 Returns Framework connects ecology, community values, spirit and culture, and long-term economic sustainability at the landscape level. The approach allows people from across the spectrum — government, business and communities — to co-create and deliver a common vision for a resilient landscape.
Commonland is one of RegenWA’s key partners. It is a not-for-profit organisation that brings people together to restore degraded landscapes and regenerate the Earth: our common land. With their holistic approach to landscape restoration – the 4 Returns framework – anyone can work with nature and their local community to restore a landscape.
Return of Inspiration
Giving people hope and a sense of purpose.
Social Return
Bringing back jobs, education and social connection.
Natural Return
Restoring biodiversity and soils for healthy and resilient landscapes.
Financial Return
Realising long-term, sustainable income for communities.
UN sustainability goals
The United Nations has outlined 17 Sustainable Development Goals which have been created to create a global call to action. the goals recognize that ending poverty needs to be achieved alongside improving health care and education, reducing inequality and encouraging economic growth, all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our planet.
PerthNRM and RegenWA project activities aim to align with as many associated Sustainable Development Goals as possible. A report has been completed assessing which of the SDG’s RegenWA activities are aligned to. It was found that RegenWA activities directly align with the following SDG’s:
