Rainforest Rescue will use a $5000 grant to plant the trees in the Daintree Rainforest to not only help combat climate change but provide new habitat for the endangered Cassowary.

Rainforest Rescue CEO Kelvin Davies said the new trees would help remove about 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from the air.
“Each tree that we plant absorbs the pollution of approximately one tonne of carbon in its lifetime,” he said.
“Our project also involves the community in tree planting, seed collection and care for seedlings, so people are educated on revegetation.”
“The trees are also being planted to create rainforest corridors for species such as the Cassowary, so they’re less likely to be killed on the roads.”

NRMA Insurance Community Grants are awarded annually to support groups being pro-active in either road safety, emergency response and recovery, crime prevention or the environment. Rainforest Rescue is one of 24 Queensland groups to receive an NRMA Insurance Community Grant for 2010. NRMA Insurance spokesperson Susan Hawkins said it made sense for an insurer to invest in environmental education.

“Research indicates climate change could lead to more severe weather events in south-east Queensland which will impact our community and our business, as an insurer,” she said. “We’re pleased to support programs, like Rainforest Rescue, which equip communities with information to make the right choices when it comes to the environment now and in the future.”

The NRMA Insurance Community Grant program was initiated by employees in 2003 to lend a helping hand to community organisations involved in reducing risk and improving safety. Since then, NRMA Insurance has helped nearly 150 Queensland groups.

The Cromwell’s and their business, Bush Branding & Marketing, have had a long association with Rainforest Rescue. It was when Greg had a Site Management plan written for his property at the start of 2007, that he was inspired to seek out the help of Rainforest Rescue. The plan identified the patches of remnant rainforest and detailed a strategy for linking them up to create a corridor. It also identified over fifty different species of rainforest trees on the property, including the Veiny Laceflower, a threatened species of tree.

Rainforest Rescue was delighted to help Greg. “We’ve planted over 100,000 trees in the Northern Rivers region, including Goonengerry, as part of our program to put trees back on farms. We began planting rainforest trees at 16 Mill Road in early 2008, aiming to restore the rainforest and develop an enhanced wildlife corridor that extends across the western boundary of the property along Mill Road.” said Rainforest Rescue CEO, Kelvin Davies. He added, “Our projects re-establish rainforests through planting, maintenance and restoration programs, as well as purchasing and protecting high conservation value rainforest and preserving its biodiversity.”

16 Mill Road is a 10 acre property just outside the village of Goonengerry. It has breathtaking panoramic views to Minyon Falls and around to Byron Bay.

Greg hopes that including a donation to Rainforest Rescue with the sale of the property will motivate potential purchasers to look at what has been accomplished on his property, with the knowledge that part of the proceeds will go to Rainforest Rescue to continue their work in protecting rainforest in the Byron Shire and beyond. The Real Estate agents representing the property, Unique Estates and GNF Bangalow, have also said they would donate to Rainforest Rescue if they are able to find a buyer.

An open house and tour of the property will be held on Sunday August 22nd at 10 am. Rainforest Rescue’s founder Kelvin Davies will be on hand to lead the tour and answer questions and talk about how land owners can help Rescue Rainforest on their property.

For more information contact:
Kelvin Davies: ph: 6684 4360 or mob: 0427 662 913
Email: kelvin@rainforestrescue.org.au

mongabay.com

A new study in Ecological Management & Restoration has found that reforesting rainforest captures more carbon than monoculture plantation and even mixed species plantations. The research tested three projects in north-eastern Australia: a rainforest reforesting project using a variety of native trees, a mixed species plantation, and a monoculture plantation of conifers.

“Compared to the monoculture plantations reforestation projects were more densely stocked, there were more large trees and the trees which were used had a higher wood density then the conifers at the plantation, explained co-author Dr John Kanowski an ecologist with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy in a press release.

The study found that on average a hectare of restored rainforest stored 106 tons of carbon: over 40 tons of carbon more than a hectare of monoculture conifer plantation and 20 tons more than a hectare of mixed species plantation.

Environmentalists have long argued against turning to vast monoculture plantations as a way to mitigate climate change, since such plantations erode biodiversity, putting many species in danger. In addition, plantations have sparked conflict with indigenous tribes and polluted water supplies.

According to Kanowski this new study puts to rest the idea that monoculture plantations store more carbon than rainforest projects.

“Carbon markets have become a potential source of funding for restoration projects as countries and corporations seek the cheapest way to reduce carbon emission. However, there is a concern that this funding will encourage single species monoculture plantations instead of diverse reforestation projects, due to the widely held belief that monocultures capture more carbon.”

Still Kanowski admits that there are economic difficulties in choosing forest restoration over plantations, since restoration projects cost more than implementing a plantation.

It was confirmed by the Tully vet who attended the scene the dead bird was a large mature female and it had sustained massive injuries.

The bird was crossing the road towards dusk when it was struck by one vehicle and ricocheted into the path of another. The driver of the second car stopped but it was too dark to see the bird.
The accident caused substantial damage to the vehicle.

“The road death rate of cassowaries at Mission Beach is unsustainable” said spokesperson for C4, Liz Gallie. “It takes four years for a cassowary to reach maturity and then it can live up to 50 years of age. The death of three adult female cassowaries in the same area within six months is a tragic blow for the important population of the endangered cassowary at Mission Beach”.

All three deaths occurred within a kilometre of each other and on a section of road that is known as a frequent crossing area.

In this 3-part series Alice Moffett shares her experiences visiting Rainforest Rescue’s Plant a Rainforest Project in Indonesia, including each location on the Orangutan Adventure Trek’s itinerary. In part 1 she had just viewed the Orangutans at the Bukit Lawang Orangutan Viewing Centre and in part 2 she stepped into the Gunung Leuser National Park for a refreshing and memorable rainforest trek. Now, for the final installation Alice takes some time with the community managed rainforest rehabilitation project and sees how a local community are ensuring a more sustainable future – one tree at a time.

I am so looking forward to meeting the people and organisation that Rainforest Rescue are working with to help conserve the Sumatran Orangutan and its habitat by supporting communities to rehabilitate illegally cleared rainforest within Sumatra’s Gunung Leuser National Park. The organisation is the Sumatran Orangutan Society – Orangutan Information Centre (SOS-OIC) and they are based Medan, Indonesia.

Imagine the hustle and bustle of Medan, Indonesia’s third largest city. Becak and bemo drivers (motorbike and small bus taxis) shooting this way and that, pungent street markets and heavy traffic, everyone busy with business to do. Here I meet SOS-OIC’s Founding Director, Panut Hadiswoyo and together we make our way out of the city to the site of the rainforest rehabilitation program. We drive for 2.5 hours through small villages connected by vast stretches of oil palm mono-culture plantations until we arrive at our destination, Langkat District, on the border of the Gunung Leuser National Park (GNLP). Children smile and wave at the site of the SOS-OIC car; easy to spot with a large orange Orangutan painted on the side.

Here, OIC is working with the community to rehabilitate 400 hectares of former rainforest that lie within the national park. Adding to the 6 million hectares in Indonesia that has already been converted to oil palm plantations[1], this land has been illegally cleared, destroying the habitat of the Sumatran Orangutan. The illegal encroachment has been stopped and the company responsible has been ejected from the park, however, their legacy of destruction remains.  Where the palms have been cleared only grasslands remain; degraded soil and bolting weeds create challenges for forest rehabilitation efforts.

A community managed cooperative called Ketapel has been established to manage the rehabilitation works. One of the group’s members, Bapak Sukirman puts down his tools to tell me his story. Bapak Sukirman works in both palm oil production and rainforest rehabilitation. His usual day begins with cutting down the fruit from the oil palms with a long bamboo pole to which a traditional knife (egrek) is attached. In the afternoon he dons his Ketapel shirt and joins the Farmer’s Group for tree planting and maintenance.

The Farmer’s Group Cooperative consists of 45 paid individuals plus family and community members who volunteer their time. Besides nursery care, planting and maintenance of new trees, members of the group also act as internal forest patrollers, committed to rehabilitating the forest and telling the oil palm companies where and where not to plant new oil palms.

Harmoniously, benefits are bestowed on the community, the forest and the Orangutan population. Bapak Sukirman tells me that the Project helps him and his community – his wage from the OIC rehabilitation program is more than one and a half times his wage from the palm oil company.

The GLNP is a UNESCO Tropical Rainforest Heritage Site and provides approximately half of the Sumatran Orangutan’s habitat range and provides essential habitat for other critically endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger. This ecosystem also provides an important water table for approximate 4 million people living in the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra who are dependent on the park’s natural resources. Bapak Sukirman says that there is already a water shortage because the natural forest is being replaced by thirsty oil palms. Sometimes he and his community must go to other villages to get water. He says we must leave the forest intact for the next generation.

By supporting the OIC and Ketapel Farmer’s Group, Rainforest Rescue has helped to plant 5000 trees over 5 hectares in the past year. Within the project target area there are still a further 322 hectares that require rehabilitation – that means we need to plant another 322,000 trees.

By donating to Rainforest Rescue’s Plant A Rainforest Indonesia Project or by joining the Orangutan Adventure Trek- every $1 will plant a rainforest tree and every $1,000 will plant and maintain a hectare of rainforest while providing a sustainable alternate livelihood and income to a farmer with a good cause.

There have been other cassowary fatalities in this area. It is on a Main Roads section of road which displays an advisory speed limit of 60km/h within an 80 km/h zone.

It appears that this is another case of a Cassowary being hit by a vehicle and the driver not stopping.

A couple travelling out of Mission Beach saw a Cassowary standing next to something on the other side of the road bending down and touching it with its beak. They stopped and realised then it was another Cassowary.

They described the scene “it was standing over the other (dead) bird and it looked like it was trying to pull it up”

Another witness who stopped called the police to report the ‘traffic hazard’ because the other bird wouldn’t go away. “It kept pecking it and nudging it. It would walk into the bush and come back out again”

When a wildlife life carer arrived the bird was sitting a few metres away under the cover of the rainforest.

The dead bird was removed by a Queensland Parks and Wildlife ranger.

More signs went up and life went back to normal… for the motorists, that is.

Why there were two birds on the scene raises some questions. Both of the birds were identified as similar in appearance being a reasonably young adults i e had full colour, black plumage with a well formed, relatively small casque.

Being a territorial species it is not common to see two adults being tolerant of each other unless it is the breeding season. December is getting very late in the season. Most of the birds being observed now are solitary or moving about the landscape with their chicks which range from a few weeks to a few months old.

So much is still unknown about the prehistoric bird, a key stone species of the rainforest, and one we have the privilege to share our lives with. Yet there is complacency about their plight and even dislike of their presence from some local residents.

It has been said” I wish I had never heard of Cassowaries, they are holding up progress” and even at the scene of the death a month ago “Get it off the road, they are just a bloody nuisance’‘

No one driving past the site since Sunday would know that another (likely breeding) adult Cassowary had been killed at this location and removed from the important population at Mission Beach. It was simply another wildlife roadkill.

Picture taken by Robert Tidey 12 Dec 09

Despite overwhelming evidence that vehicle strike is a major cause of Cassowary deaths, traffic-producing development continues to be approved without traffic-calming measures to protect the endangered species at Mission Beach.

The Community for Coastal and Cassowary Conservation (C4) has being voicing their concerns to all levels of government for 20 years and yet urbanisation continues and with it increased traffic. At Mission Beach all traffic travels through cassowary habitat.

A recent report commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency found that there are 1100 vacant blocks of land and over 900 new units currently approved or being assessed. The actual number is more.

A local real estate agent admits there is an oversupply of real estate at Mission Beach with many blocks going unsold at the regular land auctions now being held to try and move sales.

The local business group promotes Mission Beach as an adventure playground and purposefully plays down the importance of the Cassowary to the Mission Beach tourism economy.

The Cassowary once revered as an integral part of Mission Beach identity is now being seen as an inconvenience and a hindrance to progress.

Picture taken by Nancy Lowe 11 Dec 09

Cassowary Coast Council must start taking responsibility and show political will by acknowledging the importance of the cassowary population to the health of our rainforest, our community and our economy. Immediate steps need to be taken to manage and control the ongoing and increasing threats associated with development the Council is approving.

Local, state and federal legislation is allowing for serious environmental harm to occur at Mission Beach. C4 urgently calls for a temporary freeze on more development approval especially those that disregard the FNQ 2031 plan.

We ask the federal government to pay particular attention to the impact traffic will have on the continued presence of the cassowary when assessing any current and future developments in important cassowary population areas.

40% of cassowary habitat at Mission Beach is not protected. C4 has already raised $80,000 to buyback and protect forever cassowary habitat. We recently entered into a fundraising partnership with renowned Rainforest Rescue. Bob Irwin is our champion and encourages people to please donate to help secure essential cassowary habitat in the lowland tropical rainforests of Mission Beach, We hope State and Federal governments will match donations from the public, which seems fair given Cassowaries are listed as endangered under their legislation, although that could be an inconvenient truth.

For more information contact;
Liz Gallie
0414 402315
(07)40687 315
or
C4 (07) 4068 7197

A cassowary chick has died after being hit by a car in the Daintree. The bird was struck and left beside the Cape Kimberley Road, north of the Daintree River, sparking fresh pleas from Queensland Parks and Wildlife rangers for drivers to slow down and be extra cautious on rainforest roads. Senior ranger Tina Alderson said the dead bird was found by a Daintree resident last week. Its death follows a vehicle strike near Mission Beach, south of Cairns, which killed an adult cassowary several weeks ago.

The areas are known for cassowary warning signs. “The chick was found just beyond signage warning motorists of cassowaries in the area,” Ms Alderson said. “It weighed about 4kg and would have still been with its father.” She urged motorists to “do their bit” for conservation of the bird, which is listed as endangered. People can report dead cassowaries in the Daintree region to Queensland Parks and Wildlife ’s Mossman office on 4098 2188, and in other areas on 1300 130 372. * Cairns Post

Through their ‘Christmas Rescue’ Campaign, Rainforest Rescue are offering Gift Cards devoted to a range of projects that allow purchasers to nominate number of trees planted, or square metres / hectares protected. Each card details the gift with a special front cover photo or exclusive Leunig cartoon along with an inner description of the project outcomes achieved.

Rainforest Rescue Gift Cards can be sent directly to a recipient anywhere in the world with a personalised message inside or they can be sent to the giver’s address for personal delivery.

Critically endangered species like the Daintree’s Southern Cassowary and Indonesia’s Orangutans are among many who have little to celebrate this Christmas. And with deforestation causing 25% of global emissions, protecting rainforests is really a gift for everyone. Through their ‘Rescue Christmas’ campaign, Rainforest Rescue urge all those concerned for our planet to consider this easy and affordable way to find the perfect Christmas gift for everyone. Orders can be placed online at www.rainforestrescue.org.au or by phoning 1300 763 611.

In this spirit of co-operative contribution, Rainforest Rescue’s patron George Lewin is making an extraordinary offer :

For every individual who signs up to a ‘$1 a day commitment’ as an Ongoing Giver to Rainforest Rescue during Australian Giving Week, George will match their annual contribution, up to a total of $10,800! This means that we only need to sign up thirty new Regular Givers at $1 a day, for George to donate an extra $10,800 all of which will go towards Rainforest Rescue’s worthy projects.

However this offer from George is only open during Australian Giving Week — 29 November to 5 December 2009. We need to act fast in maximising this opportunity to make a massive contribution to our rainforests.

Be one of the first thirty people who rise to the challenge. Commit to ‘$1 a day’ ($30 per month) during Giving Week and every $1 you contribute in your first year will be matched by George Lewin — effectively doubling your money!

But you must ACT NOW. Join us with your monthly commitment for as little as $1 a day. From your Credit Card (join up online) or your Bank or Credit Union account (downloadable form to fax or post back).

BOB Irwin is the face of Australia’s koala and hairy-nose wombat conservation campaigns, and now he is fighting to save the endangered cassowary.

The father of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin won hearts when he made a special trip to the Far North this week to nationally launch a land buyback scheme for Mission Beach, south of Cairns.

Mr Irwin is urging Australians to donate money to Rainforest Rescue for voluntary rainforest block buybacks, and he has called on the State and Federal governments to match whatever money is raised.

“The best estimate is we have 1000 cassowaries left in North Queensland … and in Mission Beach the population may now be as low as 40,” he told a crowd of supporters yesterday.

“These birds are in danger of extinction and we need to act right now to preserve their habitat. We want every single (rainforest) block that can be purchased by the public and government.”

Rainforest Rescue’s Kelvin Davies said his not-for-profit organisation had previously sunk $600,000 worth of donations into land purchases for nature refuges in the Daintree.

“We can keep writing letters to politicians but we can also take a lead for the government to follow,” he told the crowd of his joint campaign with Mr Irwin and Mission Beach conservation group C4.

The local organisation has estimated about 40 per cent of its town’s essential cassowary habitat remains unprotected. Mr Davies said valuable land was already on the market.

“We won’t be coercing anyone to sell,” he said. “But we are on the lookout for rainforest properties and while one or two properties won’t solve the problem we do hope it will demonstrate to all levels of government that people want this.”

Donations were already trickling in after a launch on the group’s website late on Wednesday, he said.