$250,000 Rainforest Resilience grants round opens

$250,000 GRANTS ROUND OPENS

GRANTS FOR RAINFOREST LANDHOLDERS, RECOVERY GROUPS

18 October 2021

A new $250,000 grants round is opening for threatened species recovery team members and landholders with priority areas of rainforest in the Wet Tropics region.

Terrain NRM is contacting landholders who have properties with large areas of cassowary habitat or coastal rainforest, or even small patches of critically-endangered Mabi forest.

Grants for tree-planting, weed removal, nature refuges

The grants are for tree-planting, weed removal and nature refuge projects. They are part of Terrain NRM’s Building Rainforest Resilience Project.

Project coordinator Tony O’Malley said landholders and recovery group members had achieved strong results in the first two rounds of grants – with buffer zones and corridors planted for world-heritage rainforest, weeds removed ranging from guinea grass to raspberry, and the creation of nature refuges in Kuranda and Mission Beach.

“Last year, the landholders and recovery groups involved in this grants program achieved weed management work on more than 50 hectares of priority habitat, revegetation projects on over 17 hectares and 150 hectares of voluntary habitat protection agreements,’’ Mr O’Malley said.

Landholders enthusiastic about improving habitat

“The enthusiasm of the people we’ve been working with has been inspiring. Landholders are telling us the funding enabled them to improve their habitat so it’s looking the best it has in years, and they’re proud of the importance of their place to threatened species.”

Terrain NRM will be sending letters to landholders in priority areas in coming weeks, inviting them to apply for a grant. Members of the cassowary, Mabi forest and littoral rainforest recovery groups are also being invited to apply.

Improving rainforest habitat in priority areas

Priority areas were determined in consultation with threatened species recovery teams. The funding program is all about giving interested people with important habitat some help to look after that habitat.

The Building Rainforest Resilience project focuses on improving rainforest habitat in priority areas that are home to the endangered southern cassowary and to Mabi forest and littoral rainforest – both critically-endangered ecological communities.

It includes other revegetation and weed management work and research into ways to reduce cassowary deaths and injuries on roads. This project is supported by Terrain NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

For information, contact Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley on 0437 728 190 or email tony.omalley@terrain.org.au