The Australian government is taking a landscape-scale approach to conservation and biodiversity preservation with a new National Wildlife Corrridors Plan that invests $10 million over the next three years. The approach will ensure effective migration of species with a coordinated approach across all governments, private land owners and regional community groups.
An ongoing Biodiversity Fund has also been put forward with $946 million ($157 million per year) proposed over the first six years. This fund will support projects that establish, restore, protect or manage biodiverse carbon stores and that secure environmental outcomes from carbon farming. This could include reforestation and revegetation in areas of high conservation value such as wildlife corridors, rivers, streams and wetlands, the management of publicly owned native forests and land under conservation covenants or subject to land clearing restrictions. The fund can also potentially be used to prevent the spread of invasive species across connected landscapes.
It’s encouraging to see this landscape-level planning taking place, with much greater cooperation and broad-based regional planning. Such approaches will necessitate new tools, new levels of monitoring, and will provide a whole new understanding of our impacts for greater environmental stewardship.
