A CONSORTIUM of local community organisations and government agencies is working together to protect and improve the condition of Lowland Rainforest located in the Coffs Harbour and Bellingen Local Government Areas.

Called The Jaliigirr Biodiversity Alliance, the consortium was recently granted $190,000 through the Australian Government’s Landcare Led Bushfire Recovery Funding.

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Lowland Rainforest has the most diverse tree flora of any vegetation type in NSW and the species composition of the canopy varies between local stands and between regions.

The ecological community typically has a high species richness.

Jaliigirr Biodiversity Alliance Project Manager Justin Couper told News Of The Area, “The Black Summer Fires affected more than 37% of the state wide extent of rainforest ecosystems, with 30-50% of Lowland Rainforest affected.”

The project will focus on the strategic rehabilitation of Lowland Rainforest across multiple land tenures at landscape scale including National Park and freehold land.

Ecological restoration will be implemented over an area of 107ha across 11 properties in the Orara Valley, Glennifer area and Bindarii National Park.

“The vegetated area and location of the properties provide connection to well forested hillslopes in National Parks.

“Local bush regeneration contractors will undertake strategic weed management to facilitate recovery and to restore the ecological function of unburnt patches of Lowland Rainforest subject to impacts resulting from invasive species, fragmentation and patch size reduction as a result of historic land use practices.”

The project will involve Never Never Catchment Group, Bellingen Landcare, Coffs Harbour Regional Landcare, NPWS, Orara Rivercare, Coffs Harbour and District Aboriginal Land Council and Envite.

The project area is in the midst of some of the broadest forested areas of the Great Eastern Ranges west of Coffs Harbour and Bellingen, a continental-scale unbroken wildlife corridor along the Great Dividing Range and the Great Escarpment.

This Landcare Led Bushfire Recovery project has been supported by the Australian Government’s Bushfire Recovery Program for Wildlife and their Habitat.

By Andrea FERRARI