Far Northern landholders who love their patch of rainforest are signing up to conservation agreements to better protect it in the future.

Long-time Kuranda resident Susan Doherty is one of them – she recently sold her land with “peace of mind” after placing a conservation agreement over it after help from Kuranda Envirocare and Terrain NRM.

“I’ve been surrounded by beautiful regenerative rainforest for 28 years and during that time I’ve constantly seen people buying blocks in this area and dropping trees,’’ Ms Doherty said.

“I want to make sure that doesn’t happen on this piece of land. It’s well worth preserving.”

Kuranda Envirocare is helping landowners to apply for voluntary declarations – agreements under the Queensland Government’s Vegetation Management Act that protect areas of privately-owned native vegetation with high conservation values.

The organisation’s Cathy Retter said the movement was gaining momentum.

“We’ve helped with five voluntary declaration applications recently and we have interest now from another six landholders,’’ she said. “Kuranda is at a bottleneck in the world heritage area, with just a narrow corridor connecting the northern and southern parts. Every piece of habitat counts.

“A lot of freehold land here has the same values as the world heritage listed rainforest, but it’s not protected in the same way. Through this project, we’ve already found one of the best examples in the area of a kauri forest ecosystem.”

Kuranda Envirocare received a grant from Terrain NRM through its Building Rainforest Resilience project to work on the voluntary conservation agreements with interested landholders and an independent botanist. The Building Rainforest Resilience project focuses on habitat protection, revegetation and weed management work in priority areas for cassowaries, Mabi forest and littoral rainforest.

Kuranda Envirocare’s work complements an earlier grant for Kuranda Conservation Community Nursery to cover the cost of rainforest assessments for landholders seeking higher-level nature refuge status.

A groundswell of support for cassowaries has Kuranda landowners signing up for nature refuges to expand a 100km rainforest corridor.

Residents are banding together to help the endangered southern cassowary by forging voluntary conservation agreements to protect land into the future.

More than 115 hectares of rainforest could become four nature refuges after property assessments by the Queensland Trust for Nature this week, and dozens more landowners are poised to forge agreements.

The news comes in a year with 16 recorded cassowary deaths on roads across the Wet Tropics region, two of them in the Kuranda area.

Kuranda Conservation Community Nursery’s Jax Bergersen said a partnership with Terrain NRM and Queensland Trust for Nature was streamlining the conservation agreement process. Kuranda Conservation received funding from Terrain NRM earlier this year to cover the cost of nature refuge assessments for landholders wanting to place greater protections over their land.

“Through this project, we are aiming for 120 hectares of habitat protection on rural freehold properties with extensive cassowary habitat,’’ Ms Bergersen said. “The long-term goal is for nature refuges all along the existing world-heritage cassowary corridor.”

She said the world heritage rainforest was at its narrowest – just two to three kilometres – in the Kuranda region. And it was intersected by roads including the busy Kuranda Range Rd.

“Linking world heritage rainforest areas with prime ecological blocks of land is a way forward, along with the revegetation work that’s been happening for decades in this region,” she said.

Property owner Di Daniels described this week’s nature refuge assessment on her 97-acre rainforest block as “a dream come true”.

“We live in beautiful rainforest with cassowaries and many other native animals and birds,’’ she said. “We’re really privileged to be living in this environment. We want to make sure the rainforest is conserved after we’re gone.’’

The Daniels’ land adjoins world heritage areas. It is considered prime cassowary habitat and ideal for the beginnings of a wider wildlife corridor.

Far Northerners who want to better protect native vegetation on their properties can now access an information pack outlining all the options.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said many people put a lot a lot of work into maintaining habitat on their properties.

“Some property owners might want their investment to be more secure in the long run,’’ he said.

“A series of new factsheets make it easier for people to find out about the range of options available, and to see which of them might suit their situation.”

The information pack was prepared by the Environmental Defenders Office, following a request from Terrain NRM.

“These factsheets cover voluntary programs including nature refuges, statutory covenants, conservation agreements and voluntary declarations,” the Environmental Defender’s Office’s Kirstiana Ward said.

“Landowners can volunteer to place environmental covenants or other protections over their land. These protections are negotiated between landholders and the Queensland, Commonwealth or local government. Protections can be for various periods of time, and can still apply when land changes owners.”

Mr O’Malley said four Kuranda landholders were currently working with Kuranda Conservation, Terrain NRM and Queensland Trust for Nature to create nature refuges on their land. There are more than 100 nature refuges already in place in the Wet Tropics region.

“We can provide resources, like covering the costs of a nature refuge assessment for landholders with important habitat, and potentially helping with revegetation or weed control as part of our Rebuilding Rainforest Resilience project,’’ he said.

“A lot of important Wet Tropics habitat is actually on private land. We are keen to help people with habitat or corridors for threatened species.

“We want to make it easier for people who are passionate about their patch to preserve it well into the future. The Environmental Defenders Office factsheets are a great new resource.”