Exploring Bushfire Recovery & Resilience Projects

15 October 2021 Wild Futures

We all remember the bushfires that tore across the country throughout summer 2019-2020.

In fact, it’s still raw in the hearts and minds of millions of Australians with thousands of individuals and communities still rebuilding their lives today.

With estimates of over 1.25 billion animals killed, and an incredible 12 million hectares of land affected, it is clear that as a country and global community, efforts to both prepare for and recover from environmental disasters is more important than ever. Our climate and natural areas are changing, which mean ecosystems and wildlife need all the help they can get to adapt to this dynamic future.

As part of our solution, CVA has three new bushfire resilience and recovery projects lead by our Wild Futures team and tailored to the on-ground needs of different communities across Australia.

Check out our exciting new projects below:

1) Enhancing local leadership across regional communities

With the importance of empowering and engaging local leaders at the forefront of our first project, the NSW Government is funding this 1-million-dollar initiative aimed to regenerate the environment in bushfire-affected areas through the development of local leaders.

Why this new direction? CVA sees local leaders and community groups as the backbone of regional communities. They’re the pillars who can bring together others to solve problems from the ground up. The holistic approach for this project will develop a community co-designed program to empower and encourage greater capacity in local leaders, while both restoring fire-affected bushland and identifying processes that community members can implement to protect biodiversity and wildlife for future generations.

Keep an eye out for the roll out of this dynamic new project in regional NSW.

Photo credit: Gypsy Rose, Weekend Notes

2) Hands on recovery of Greater Sydney bushfire-affected areas

On the back of seeing the urgent need to help threatened species and habitats with bushfire recovery efforts, our Greater Sydney project partners with Landcare groups and public and private land managers directly to help restore bushfire-affected areas of the region.

CVA will be gathering local volunteers and stakeholders to lend a helping hand through weed control, citizen science wildlife surveys and monitoring, and construction and installation of nest boxes as homes for affected wildlife. However it won’t stop there! At the same time there is an urgent need to better prepare communities to undertake these steps for future disasters, which will require more empowered local leaders – this is something CVA will play an integral part in through our various leadership development pathways.

Elements of this project will take place across the magical Blue Mountains and the Hunter’s Barrington Tops. The Barrington project requires weed control in a special remote area that contains a number of important threatened species. We are very excited about contributing to the potential eradication of a serious weed threat there. The Landcare Led Bushfire Recovery project has been supported by the Australian Government’s Bushfire Recovery Program for Wildlife and their Habitat.

Photo credit: Julie Burgher, Flickr

3) Nurturing the recovery of woodland birds in South Australia

Set in the Mt Lofty Ranges in South Australia, this project will focus on bushfire recovery and awareness of woodland birds. The project complements an existing long-term woodland birds study championed by Dr David Paton, a highly regarded ecologist at the University of Adelaide. We are very proud to be partnering with Dr Paton who will be presenting at the project’s launch workshop. We are pleased to be working with a number of other key groups too, including Adelaide Hills Council, the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board and the Hills Environment Centre.

Ultimately, the aim is to increase bushfire eco-literacy and community ownership of woodland bird protection. The project is currently funded by Global Giving.

Want to be involved with our bushfire recovery and resilience efforts? Find out more here!

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