Growing a Rainforest Community - ATBC

Growing a Rainforest Community is more than just planting a rainforest, it is about reconnecting through culture, nature, and each other.

In the far northern Wet Tropics bioregion of north eastern Australia the community is planting rainforest trees on what was once a sugar-cane field (Nightwings Rainforest Project). The local indigenous custodians (Aboriginal Elder, Bennett Walker and family) have joined with the landholder (Anne Shoenberger), and the not for profit conservation organisation Rainforest Rescue to restore the rainforest. Each year over 100 community volunteers from around Australia gather together to contribute to the restoration of the lowland rainforest. To build a rainforest future and reconnect to community and country.

More than 150 species of trees are used in the planting, representing a broad range of fruit and blossom producing trees that attract, and are habitat for, birds, bats, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. The plantings then contribute to further rainforest habitat expansion through the dispersal of seeds to surrounding areas. Planting has been taking place on this site for the past four years. The tallest trees are now more than 5 meters in height, with leaf litter accumulating on the forest floor and the rainforest canopy already beginning to close. This young rainforest offers a haven for many animal species. Even the endangered Southern Cassowary has been spotted wandering through the young forest.

As of February 2020, 55,000 trees have been planted at the Nightwings Rainforest Project. The restoration of the land back to natural habitat creates a vital wildlife corridor from the World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest foothills to the riverine and coastal mangroves. The Daintree is rich in plants and animals with deep time Gondwanan ancestry and protects more than 40 million years of Australia’s evolutionary history. It is the most biodiverse rainforest in Australia.

Rainforest Rescue is focused on protecting intact rainforest and restoring degraded rainforest land. They have been carrying out this work in the Daintree region since early 2000. Rainforest Rescue is on a mission to protect rainforest forever, offering a greener future for the world, and all living things.