A protected area along the Little Liverpool Range covering more than 4000 hectares will be restored thanks to $750,000 in funding under the Palaszczuk Government’s flagship $500 million Land Restoration Fund.
Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef Leeanne Enoch said that the Queensland Trust for Nature’s project is one of six that will share in more than $4 million under the Catalysing Action Grants program.
“Carbon farming is an emerging industry that has real opportunity to create new jobs and revenue for regional communities,” Ms Enoch said.
“These grants provide funding to support ‘on-ground’ projects that demonstrate the delivery of carbon farming activities alongside measurable environmental, social and economic co-benefits.
“The Queensland Trust for Nature project ‘Counting the co-benefits: Carbon, connectivity, koalas and water’ does exactly this.
“The project will restore protected areas and develop a model for landholders to restore degraded land while diversifying their income.
“The project will also see re-established koala habitat and improved water quality, and support other threatened species including the brush-tailed rock wallaby and the glossy black-cockatoo.
“We want to see more graziers participating in carbon farming and this project will encourage that,” she said.
Dr Adrian Volders, Queensland Trust for Nature Chairperson, said his organisation was thrilled to be partnering with Healthy Land and Water and Greencollar to deliver a game-changing project as part of the Land Restoration Fund’s Catalysing Action Grants program.
“The real game-changer here is the combination and breadth of skills of our partners,” said Dr Volders.
“Queensland Trust for Nature has been working for many years to find innovative ways to harness and grow investment in private land conservation.
“By working with the Queensland Government’s Land Restoration Fund, environmental market leaders Greencollar, and the experts Healthy Land and Water, as well as private landholders, universities and others, the project shows that partnerships really are at the heart of conservation.
“Facing Queensland’s environmental challenges requires an all hands on-deck approach and we want to work with landholders to model and grow opportunities to diversify farm incomes into carbon, water quality and biodiversity co-benefit production.”
Other projects funded as part of this program include revegetating the banks of the Bremer river and rainforest restoration on the Atherton Tablelands.
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