BRIDGES
Building Relationships that Increase Diversity to Gain Environmental Sustainability
The focus of the BRIDGES initiative is to bring volunteers from across Australia and around the world to assist in the restoration of an endangered ecological system, preserving Australia’s unique beauty. Kanangra-Boyd to Wyangala (K2W) is a landscape link in the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative comprising 319, 200 hectares of biologically rich landscape supporting vulnerable and endangered native Australian species. As part of the NSW Bushconnect program, rural communities in the K2W area have set about increasing threatened species awareness, restoring connectivity, enhancing habitat quality, and monitoring native species at risk. For this project IVP volunteers will assist at remote sites to enhance target species habitat by providing food, shelter and nesting resources over a two week period. An intensive, two week project incorporating remote sites will greatly increase K2W program outcomes. Additionally participants will be assisting with activities that work to halt biodiversity loss on land helping to meet United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 15.
Approximately 44% of Australia’s forests and woodlands have been cleared leading to significant habitat fragmentation affecting the viability of biodiversity and conservation outcomes. Fragmentation is a major threat to connectivity along The Great Eastern Ranges (GER). The GER initiative, along with a score of similarly continental scaled projects aim to restore connectivity across all forms of land tenure. This a relatively recent development, and GERI (underway since 2012) is at its forefront. Without connectivity native species cannot move across the landscape to find resources, or extend their range in response to climate change. Connectivity is vital to species dispersal. Lack of dispersal can lead to species isolation which increases risk of extinction. There are multiple endangered and vulnerable species in need of conservation in the GER, including the spotted-tailed quoll and the Squirrel glider. Volunteers are essential to these re-connectivity activities. BRIDGES will introduce volunteers to this vision on the ground.
If interested in this initiative please contact IVP Australia (admin@ivp.org.au) to register your details for an up coming camp.
For further information
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About Us – The Great Eastern Ranges Initiative www.greateasternranges.org.au The Great Eastern Ranges Initiative (GER) brings people and organisations together to protect, link and restore healthy habitats over 3,600km, from western Victoria through NSW and the ACT to far north Queensland. |
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Vision. The Great Eastern Ranges Initiative brings people and organisations together to protect, link and restore healthy habitats over 3,600km, from western Victoria through NSW and the ACT to far north Queensland.
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United Nations Association of Australia. Informing, inspiring and engaging Australian’s regarding the work, goals and values of the United Nations
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Australia State of the Environment 2016 is a comprehensive national assessment of the state of the Australian environment. Written by independent experts, it is an analysis of the best available evidence to give us a clear picture of what is going well and where we need to focus our efforts.
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