Another Excerpt from Kaleigh and Jon’s Daintree Regeneration Experience:

Towering Fan Palm galleries, ancient flowering trees, and prehistoric looking cassowaries—it’s easy to forget what century you are in while walking though the Daintree Rainforest. The Daintree has one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, housing some of the most beautiful and ancient plant and animal life I have ever had the privilege of seeing—and I know I’m not the only one who finds it beautiful.

As human beings who appreciate nature’s beauty, it’s a natural reaction to want to settle in a place like the Daintree, but it’s important to stop and think about what it means to clear away these ancient lots of land to build and develop—it’s just not worth it. After being in the Daintree for two weeks, I felt truly privileged to have experienced all that the Daintree has to offer and I began to understand how important it is that we work to protect it. 

As a developed nation, Australia has the means and the demand to develop such beautiful areas, but it is important to prevent this from happening. Stopping the development of the Daintree does not mean we are no longer able to experience the area, however. There is no need for us to clear the land in order to be a part of it—we just need to come to terms with being visitors in this beautiful place, not owners. Let’s take a moment for once and instead of moving forward irrevocably, let’s stop and begin to restore and cherish what we still have.

Rainforest Rescue is working to protect rainforest that still exists and to rebuild those areas that have been cleared. They plant on lots they have purchased themselves, lots purchased back by the Queensland Government, as well as privately owned lots of land. David Cook, the Daintree Conservation Project Officer for Rainforest Rescue, has the right attitude about finding sites to plant on—any site he can get his hands on will do. It’s all about getting as many native rainforest trees in the ground as possible.

David actually discovered the privately owned site we were planting on by chance. He was doing some work a few months ago on a site next door and wanted to let the owner of the lot next door know that there was going to be some work going on close to his property. A little conversation and a beer later Fritzy, the owner of the property, gladly accepted David’s offer to plant his property with rainforest trees. Sometimes re-generation can happen “by accident” like that.

It’s also great to know that even the privately owned land that is planted by Rainforest Rescue is protected in perpetuity. The owner of the re-generated land is asked to sign an agreement that ensures that the trees are never cleared for development, no matter what happens to the property in the future.

In a time where 20% of global emissions come from deforestation, it was nice to put some human energy into keeping the carbon in the trees and not in the atmosphere. With this continuous effort going into preserving and protecting the Daintree, it’s only going to get easier to forget what century you are in when you talk a walk through the rainforest.

Words by Kaleigh Wisman                                                                                                Images by Jon Sturge