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Creating a conservation corridor
Gondwana Link
‘Pretty special’ is how Gondwana Link’s project officer Paula Deegan has described a group of people in the South West of our state. Their passionate concern about the degradation of their local environment has initiated what has become an international conservation effort.
Taking its name from a prehistoric land mass known as ‘Gondwanaland’, the Gondwana Link project’s aim is an ambitious one - to build a ‘living link’ through the state from Kalgoorlie to the South West coast by protecting and replanting bushland over 850km.
The project’s initial focus is on the area between the Stirling Range and the Fitzgerald River national Parks. These are considered to be part of an international biodiversity ‘hotspots’ as they’re home to an extraordinarily high number of endemic plant and animal species.
These areas have also seen some of the devastating impacts of large scale clearing for agricultural use over long periods of time. It’s this degradation that prompted people in the region to take notice as they saw disturbing changes beginning to take place in the environment around them.
“Back 10 or so years ago people in the area started seeing opportunities for linking up the remaining areas of bushland by buying properties that were suited to revegetationwhen they came on the market-” says Paula.
This ‘grass roots’ concern lead to the formalisation of the ‘Gondwana Link Project’. Greening Australia, together with four other not for profit organisations (Australian Bush Heritage Fund, Fitzgerald Biosphere Group, Friends of the Fitzgerald River National Park and The Wilderness Society) have now established an associated Gondwana Link fund raising campaign, which aims to purchase remnant habitats as well as revegetate previously cleared land. Other not for profit organisations including Fitzgerald Biosphere Group, Friends of the Fitzgerald River National Park, Green Skills and The Wilderness Society are also contributing their particular skills and energy.
This project is the first of its kind in Australia and is leading the way in the conservation of rural landscapes.
It’s this innovative community-based approach Lotterywest was pleased to support through a ‘Gordon Reid Conservation of Natural Heritage’ Grant to Greening Australia WA for the Gondwana Link Project. Gordon Reid was one of the state’s most popular Governors and the grants aim to support community groups in their efforts to restore, protect, manage or monitor their natural heritage.
The grant will fund items such as GPS and survey equipment, administration, operating costs, and salary for specialist project staff; allowing the establishment of systems to collect and share data crucial to the project.
Paula explains the significance of the grant:
“The Lotterywest funding means we can put in place baseline monitoring and survey information, so we can build up our knowledge of the ecology of the area. It basically means we’re able to do in one year what may have taken us several, effectively ‘speeding up’ our conservation efforts.
“By having the funding we’re able to establish an ambitious goal, combining community and scientific knowledge. A lot of people have found in the past that while ‘pieces’ of information are available, it’s hard to see it all in an analysed format.
“That’s why we’ve tried to approach this program in an open way, so that any knowledge that we build during the course of the project, is made available to other people and organisations for future conservation efforts.
“Support from Lotterywest complements the investment from a range of private, corporate, philanthropic and community sources, both in Australia and overseas, allowing the continuation of our work across the Gondwana Link”
The pay-offs are both cultural and economic.
Not only does the project aim to stem the tide of salinity and preserve the habitats of our native flora and fauna, it also aims to encourage the community to be enterprising in the way it utilises the environment for commercial value.