More than one million trees are expected to be planted as part of the first small grants round of the Australian Government’s 20 Million Trees Programme.
The 20 Million Trees Programme is a key election commitment, providing $50 million over four years to contribute to re-establishing native vegetation, providing habitat to support our threatened plants and animals, and creating greener spaces to improve the liveability of our cities and towns.
Grants totalling $4.5 million have been approved for 57 projects in urban and regional areas around Australia. This funding is going to Landcare and community groups, individuals and organisations to enable them to plant native trees, shrubs and other vegetation in their local communities.
It is great to see how positively communities from across Australia have embraced the opportunity to plant trees and contribute to real environmental benefits in their own backyard.
The projects funded in this first round will deliver up to 1.1 million native trees.
Projects include:
• Increasing forage habitat for Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos on Western Australia’s Swan Coastal Plain
• Creating vegetation corridors for Ballina’s Koala populations
• Habitat restoration for Leadbeaters Possums and Helmeted Honeyeaters in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs
• Creating connectivity corridors between dairy farms on New South Wales’ south coast
• Revegetation in areas within Tasmania’s World Heritage listed forests
I am looking forward to seeing these trees—and the millions to follow under this programme—grow into green corridors and urban forests that will provide benefits to the environment and to local communities.
The 20 Million Trees Programme Competitive Grants Round One 2014-2015 was open nationwide for applications during October 2014.
As well as the grants, the Australian Government is running a tender for service providers to undertake large-scale tree plantings. More details about the national service provider process are available on the AusTender website.
The 20 Million Trees initiative is an important part of the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme which over the next four years will see more than $2 billion in managing our natural resources, enabling communities to take practical action to improve their local environment.
More information on the programme and the successful projects is available at www.nrm.gov.au/20-million-trees
(ENDS)