Final round of rainforest grants

Eligible landholders wanting a helping hand to look after their lot now apply for funding through Terrain NRM’s final round of Rainforest Resilience Grants.

Up to $20,000 is available for revegetation, habitat protection agreements and weed management.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said the funding recognises that important habitat isn’t just located in national park and conservation areas.

“We know that landholders right across the Wet Tropics already play a large part in helping to look after the region’s natural areas, and we want to further support that,” he said. “We have contacted over 300 landholders and Traditional Owner organisations who we think are in important cassowary habitat or corridors, or might have rare rainforest types like littoral or mabi forest, to invite them to apply for a grant.”

Terrain and threatened species recovery teams – including all levels of government, scientists, traditional owners and conservation group members – have worked together to determine where landholders should be supported to help connect or buffer large habitat systems.

The grants are also open to threatened species recovery team members.

41 grants allocated in previous rounds have helped landholders to revegetate 13 hectares of land, manage 234 hectares for weeds, and protect 260 hectares of habitat.

Speewah’s Anabel and Bruce Belson are among the growing collective of landholders who have accessed a rainforest grant.

Anabel said they were very excited to be offered a grant as it coincided with the discovery of a large patch of lantana. “Our 68 hectare, mostly forested block, is right on the edge of world heritage rainforest and has important ecological value so it’s important to us to look after it – but the ongoing maintenance certainly doesn’t get easier as we get older”.