Landholders sign up for nature refuges to extend cassowary corridors
Residents are banding together to help the endangered southern cassowary. Image Liz Gallie
A groundswell of support for cassowaries has Kuranda landowners signing up for nature refuges to expand a 100km rainforest corridor.
Residents are banding together to help the endangered southern cassowary by forging voluntary conservation agreements to protect land into the future.
More than 115 hectares of rainforest could become four nature refuges after property assessments by the Queensland Trust for Nature recently, with dozens more landowners poised to forge agreements.
The news comes in a year with 16 recorded cassowary deaths on roads across the Wet Tropics region, two of them in the Kuranda area.
Kuranda Conservation Community Nursery’s Jax Bergersen said a partnership with Terrain NRM and Queensland Trust for Nature was streamlining the conservation agreement process. Kuranda Conservation received funding from Terrain NRM earlier this year to cover the cost of nature refuge assessments for landholders wanting to place greater protections over their land.
“Through this project, we are aiming for 120 hectares of habitat protection on rural freehold properties with extensive cassowary habitat,’’ Ms Bergersen said. “The long-term goal is for nature refuges all along the existing world-heritage cassowary corridor.”
She said the world heritage rainforest was at its narrowest – just two to three kilometres – in the Kuranda region. And it was intersected by roads including the busy Kuranda Range Rd.
Property owner Di Daniels described this week’s nature refuge assessment on her 97-acre rainforest block as “a dream come true”.
“We live in a beautiful rainforest with cassowaries and many other native animals and birds,’’ she said. “We’re really privileged to be living in this environment. We want to make sure the rainforest is conserved after we’re gone.’’
Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said the grant for Kuranda Conservation was part of larger ‘Rebuilding Rainforest Resilience’ project including revegetation work, a landholder incentive program, community grants and ways to reduce cassowary deaths and injuries on roads. This project is supported by Terrain NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.
For more information about voluntary conservation agreements, download an information pack. Landholders can also contact Jax Bergersen on 4093 8834 or Tony O’Malley on 0437 728 190.
