Restore Australia is an initiative being progressed by the Global EverGreening Alliance (GEA) which has about $300M from international donors to restore degraded lands across Australia and sequester carbon over the next five years. This is significant funding directed to the Australian landscape and TMI has been privileged to be invited to participate.
Through the development of this project the Mulloon Institute’s Chairman Gary Nairn has also been part of a Technical Advisory Board (TAB) overseeing the structure of the program to be followed.
“During April, the TAB met via zoom on numerous occasions to ensure the project was kept on track to meet a very tight timetable specified by the donors. The process also included a two-day workshop that comprised up to sixty-eight people participating via a zoom meeting. It even included break-out sessions. If I hadn’t participated myself for the whole two days, I wouldn’t have believed it could be done so efficiently. Technology has certainly allowed business to continue albeit in a very different form.”
– Gary Nairn, TMI Chairman
Five priority regions have now been selected with coordinating organisations appointed to each region. As a collaborating organisation TMI is working with the coordinating organisations as a more detailed plan is developed for each region. The regions include: the Far North Tropics; the Rangelands west of the divide running from North Queensland to the Victorian border; the Great Dividing Range also from Queensland through to Victoria; bushfire affected regions; and, the South-West of WA including the Wheatbelt. A very large part of Australia will be impacted by this ambitious but badly needed project and it gives TMI further opportunities to work at the catchment scale. It also opens up opportunities to leverage other funding.
Read the Global EverGreening Alliance’s Restore Australia program brief