Your Offsets prevent Land Clearing and grow the Alps to Atherton Corridor.

Every one hectare of native forest is currently storing the past decade’s worth of carbon dioxide emitted by the average Australian household.

Energy saving efforts, however, can only succeed if these forests remain intact. If they get cleared, years’ worth of carbon emissions will be released into the atmosphere.

Your offsets help the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife buy native bushland to grow the Alps to Atherton wildlife corridor to preserve wildlife habitat and allow nature to adapt to climate change.

The Alps to Atherton Wildlife Corridor will link woodlands running along 2800km of the Great Eastern ranges from the Australian Alps in southern Victoria to the Atherton Tablelands and beyond in far north Queensland.

Much of the native bush along the Great Divide is protected within the public reserve system, including national parks.

The integrity of this corridor is however disrupted by privately owned land, and native vegetation on this land is not protected. Wildlife depends on vast stretches of native vegetation to move between habitats in case of fire, and to adjust to a changing climate in the long run.

The forests in this area present Australia’s main carbon storage, holding much of Australia’s emissions of the past 50 years. These forests must be protected from clearing or these emissions will be released into the atmosphere.

The Alps to Atherton Wildlife Corridor protects essential biodiversity and ecosystem services. It captures the most reliable rainfall in eastern Australia, providing clean water for cities and agriculture

The biodiversity of this area makes it the terrestrial equivalent of the Great Barrier Reef. Many of Australia’s most endangered plants and animals depend on this corridor.

The corridor will allow species to find new sanctuaries as our climate and their habitat changes

It is a direct answer to the challenge that climate change is posing to the future of many of our native plants and animals

The Alps to Atherton Wildlife Corridor project aims to protect as much of this land as possible, through purchase for conservation and by winning the support of conservation minded landowners to protect bushland on their property.

For more information about the Foundation for Natonal Parks & Wildlife please click here.

Here are the facts

1. 20% of the world’s carbon emissions are caused by land clearing.
2. In Australia land clearing still accounts for 13% of greenhouses gas emissions.
3. Every 100 hectares of bushland that are cleared release the equivalent of the total annual emissions of 600 Australians.
4. In other words, for every hectare cleared, 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide are released from the above ground bio mass and the same amount from soil carbon. That is 200 tonnes of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
5. Forests provide habitats to about 2/3 of the species on Earth
6. In Australia currently only 10.6% of land is protected.