More than $19.8 million was awarded through the Trust’s contestable grant programs for projects that will reduce waste, restore natural habitats, provide innovative research solutions and enhance environmental education and community engagement.
This year the Trust awarded $10 million to the Office of Environment and Heritage for the acquisition of properties that contain high-priority koala habitat. The five-year project will fund the purchase of strategic properties for addition to the national parks estate. The project will be guided by a statewide spatial analysis of koala records, and habitat mapping and modelling.
The Trust’s large-scale restoration programs are continuing to show the value of long-term investment in rehabilitation. Now in its fifth year, the Community Bush Regeneration Program has so far established 62,543 hectares of connected vegetation across terrestrial, riparian and wetland communities through a combination of rehabilitation and replanting activities. In the Great Eastern Ranges corridor, Bush Connect grantees have so far created 755 hectares of new wildlife corridors that will improve habitat quality and connectivity.
This year, with the extension of the Waste Less, Recycle More initiative, the Trust will be managing an additional $61.5 million over four years for six new contestable grant programs in collaboration with the NSW Environment Protection Authority. These programs will commence in 2017–18.
