Volunteer groups across the ACT are set to receive a share of $500,000 under the ACT Government's new Connecting Nature, Connecting People initiative.;
Minister for the Environment Rebecca Vassarotti said the selected sites will serve as vibrant hubs for nature in the suburbs, improving Canberra's environmental resilience within a climate crisis.
"This funding will bolster wildlife habitat corridors, ensuring that as a result of the twenty satellite sites across the territory, we begin to repair the damage caused by development without environmental considerations
"Funding for these twenty satellite sites will repair and reconnect the environmental damage caused by decades of development without environmental corridors.
"In effect, these projects are sewing our environment back together.
"Unnatural fragmentation of habitats is one of the key threatening processes under ACT's Nature Conservation Act and the key issue underpinning this initiative.
"Under the ACT Government's Connecting Nature, Connecting People initiative, this milestone marks a significant step towards improving ecological connectivity across the territory and enables species to move more freely within our city's landscape.
"The areas were identified by a community expression of interest process held earlier in the year and are largely concentrated around the Yarralumla, Tuggeranong, Ginninderra, Sullivans Creek and Jerrabomberra Creek.
"Each of these urban corridors are crucial areas of biodiversity, sensitive to ongoing disturbance and prime real estate for native plants and animals.
"This investment will be used to deliver on-ground outcomes, working to replant native species and implement weed control initiatives to rebuild the local environment.
"The Government is working with ACT Catchment Groups to identify additional sites where similar work can be undertaken into the future.
