Greening Australia

Meet our very own Megan Lewis and learn a little more about our part in the Bank Australia conservation reserve 🌱

👍 having all clan groups working towards the same goal. Recently 25 Traditional Owners, representing First Nations groups in the Fitzroy Catchment, attended the second ever two-day forum of the Fitzroy Catchment Traditional Owners Alliance (FCTOA). The forums are a vehicle for Traditional Owners of the Fitzroy Basin to be heard as one voice advocating for action, knowledge sharing and collective decision-making on whole-of-Basin issues. Thank you to key stakeholders who supported the forum: CSIRO, the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water, FBA, and Greening Australia. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3M34nrG

Fijian and Australian Traditional Owners recently gathered in far north Queensland for a cultural exchange, as part of the Pacific Blue Carbon Program with Conservation International 🌊 This exchange brought together government and community delegates from Fiji and Australian First Nations communities to share traditional knowledge, exchange insights, and strengthen connections. It also served as a valuable reminder that the role of partners like us at Greening Australia, is to walk alongside, not ahead, of Traditional Owners and First Nations Communities when it comes to restoring and protecting ecosystems. Click to read the full article below:

🌱Meet Nicki Taws, a Greening Australia veteran with over two decades' experience with the organisation!    Nicki became involved with Greening Australia as a volunteer in 1999 when one of the Canberra office staff asked her to help organise some bird surveys in revegetated sites. The volunteer role morphed into a permanent position and, twenty years later, Nicki now works as a project manager restoring woodland and grassland vegetation around the ACT and south-eastern NSW. Her daily work can involve anything from planning restoration, project inception, visiting landholders, arranging subcontractors, planting, seeding, monitoring, researching and reporting. There's always so much to learn from each project, even those that don’t do so well. For Nicki, the reward is successfully restoring a site, particularly a challenging site, and seeing the birds and other wildlife return. If you're wondering what Nicki is holding, these are specialised AirSeed Technologies seed pods distributed by drones to restore habitat in hard to access places. You can read more about this Minderoo Foundation funded project here: https://lnkd.in/gWa4S8Ay

🌱 What does it take to restore a critically endangered rainforest? 🌳 The Big Scrub once spanned 75,000 hectares as Australia's largest lowland subtropical rainforest. Today, only 1% of this Gondwana-era rainforest remains, almost entirely cleared by the year 1900 for agriculture. To help restore this precious ecosystem, we're planting over 60,000 trees across 26 hectares on Bundjalung Country in the NSW Northern Rivers region. This revegetation will help form new biodiversity corridors and habitats for native species like the Rose-crowned Fruit Dove and Grey-headed Flying Fox. Mark Dunphy, President of Big Scrub Rainforest Conservancy, shared his excitement about this initiative: “There are wonderful things happening to restore this endangered ecosystem; however, this pioneer project has the potential to inspire and hopefully supercharge the restoration of rainforest in the Big Scrub area.” These plantings are part of the Nestlé Global Reforestation Program, which in Australia aims to establish 10 million trees in partnership with Greening Australia, Canopy and One Tree Planted.

We’re delighted to announce that two of our blue carbon projects have received a share of $28.5 million for reef and coastal restoration. This funding is vitally important in strengthening the resilience of our coastal ecosystems and protecting the Great Barrier Reef. Learn more on our website. #ReefTrust Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

Introducing our epic world-class restoration project with Bush Heritage Australia! At Ediegarrup Reserve on Goreng Noongar Country, we're working together to restore 600 hectares of biodiverse native habitat. What we’re doing is not just good for the climate, but also good for nature🌱 Learn more: https://bit.ly/4bEuZJE

NAIDOC week is an opportunity for all Australians to celebrate and learn about First Nations cultures. We're kicking off with a spotlight on Bundjalung Yaegl woman and Bullaburra resident, Janelle Randall-Court, our Cultural Educator for Greening Australia's Cooling the Schools program. Through this program we work with students and teachers to add thousands of native trees and plants to schoolyards, allowing students to learn firsthand about the environmental and cultural benefits of planting native trees for First Nations cultures, urban cooling and biodiversity. "Working with children, working with community, as an educator is really a beautiful opportunity to weave my cultural history and that cultural story in everything I do. I’ve always been concerned about the health of Country and have looked at opportunities to find positive ways to heal Country." - Janelle Randall-Court. Thanks to Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative for featuring Janelle and Nicola delivering one of our Cooling the Schools sessions at Bringelly Public School. What a day it was, and what a beautiful reflection by these hard workers on connecting kids to nature. Watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/gQ62CQbH #CoolingtheSchools proudly supported by NSW Department of Education NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure #GreeningourCity #NAIDOC2024

Recent updates from Mungalla Station: Nywaigi mob gather, eat and camp out at Mungalla Station, talking blue carbon. Recently, over 60 Nywaigi people and their families spent a weekend on Country at Mungalla Station, exploring the benefits of restoring blue carbon ecosystems. James Cook University is also partnering with a handful of Nywaigi youth on a cultural wellbeing study, training them in a survey methodology to document yarns with Elders about the benefits of caring for Country, as well as what benefits they witness for the Country from environmental restoration.   “The weekend was a fantastic gathering of Nywaigi people and project partners with sunshine, great food from an Indigenous chef and lots of discussion about, and growing understanding of blue carbon, we are privileged to walk with First Nations to explore how caring for these systems can provide environmental, economic, and social benefits for all,” said Sharon Marks from Greening Australia.  The Mungalla Blue Carbon Project is funded by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Just a few hours left of Green Day but June isn't over yet! Your donation can still make an impact to restore our landscapes for regenerations to come.