Partnership to Rescue 929 Acres in the Daintree

Posted 10 September 2020

In Conservation, News, Partnerships, Rescue, Restoration, Tree Planting

Northern Boundary of Eastern Portion of Lot 83

RAINFOREST RESCUE AND QTFN FURTHER LEVERAGE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP FOR THE DAINTREE

Our partnership with Queensland Trust for Nature (QTFN) is strong and making great strides. Together we are rescuing Lot 83 Cape Tribulation Rd – a massive Daintree block – and planning a new Daintree Native Nursery that will help power and accelerate Daintree restoration.

This is a huge 376-hectare (929 acres!) Daintree property which will now be protected forever.

The property had been purchased last year by Council under the previous administration with the intention of working with Rainforest Rescue, QTFN and Jabalbina to restore the degraded elements of the property in order to offset the Shire’s carbon emissions. With the elections last March, the Council changed and new mayor Michael Kerr took over. One of his commitments was to reverse that purchase but still hoping to protect the land through conservation. Mayor Kerr approached Rainforest Rescue and QTFN and asked if we would be interested in purchasing the property. Normally we would be daunted by the price tag of $725,000 – but thanks to our partnership with QTFN, we were able to help broker a deal whereby QTFN will secure the property and then grant Rainforest Rescue the footprint necessary to create a large capacity nursery to feed more local restoration projects, including the cattle-wasted land on Lot 83.

Rainforest Rescue’s mission is to protect rainforests forever. We do this through buyback and restoration of damaged rainforest land. and we undertake significant restoration to transform degraded properties and return them to lush rainforest habitats. Rainforest health is crucial and hundreds of species – many endemic species that are rare and many that are endangered – rely on resources in their established ecosystems for food and shelter. We’ve now saved thirty-five properties in the Daintree lowlands where they remain forever protected and out-of-reach of destructive activities.

Lot 83 Boundaries

Lot 83 is a largely intact block with several distinct ecosystem types represented from the Daintree River on up to the rainforest-rich peak. Approximately 90 hectares need to be restored through tree planting and management. With our years of rescuing and regenerating the unprotected Daintree lowlands, Rainforest Rescue is perfectly placed to do this; to date, we have planted over 310,000 trees—and with a new nursery planned to be built on this property, we envision producing many hundreds of thousands more. (Can you imagine when we can count the number of trees in the millions?!)

The opportunity to rescue such a large parcel is what Rainforest Rescue always hopes for but have been limited because of our size. With the support of QTFN we are able to support the rescues like this.

And now we have a place that can support a large-scale nursery which, in turn, will support large-scale restoration. To ensure our success, we’ll also be relying on our partnership with Jabalbina Aboriginal Corporation and the expertise of their rangers.

Douglas Shire Mayor Michael Kerr has been the first to speak publicly on the huge purchase, touching on the nursery creation and stating that QTFN and Rainforest Rescue will “…create a nursery which will provide training and learning opportunities for Indigenous rangers on country and have already been in discussions with Jabalbina about how the work can be delivered and open up employment opportunities for eastern Kuku Yalanji people.”

There’s a tremendous amount to be done yet, from planning to raising the funds that will deliver a new nursery at the Gateway to the Daintree. The possibilities are very exciting – and the realities of being able to provide more Daintree-sourced, genetically-appropriate trees for restoration is core to our restoration program. Rainforest Rescue will continue to buy back and protect land, and soon we’ll be able to restore more damaged Daintree rainforest than ever before. And of the 250 acres that have been lost to cattle on this block, that is prime rainforest restoration opportunity.

For now, it’s wonderful to be able to celebrate the protection of this significant parcel of the Daintree. We’re extremely grateful to our friends at QTFN as well as our partners at Jabalbina for making this possible.

It’s time to grow! #TimeToGrow