Gondwana Link

South-western Australia is internationally renowned for its ecological diversity. Hundreds of millions of years of evolution across one of the Earth's oldest land surfaces has created a major 'biodiversity hotspot'. Sadly, massive clearing of vegetation for agriculture has fragmented the landscape. Climate change and land degradation now threaten the long-term viability of much of the region's biodiversity.

The scale of the challenge, and the unique opportunities that currently exist, make this region the perfect location for a pilot project to guide the development of WildCountry principles around Australia.

The Gondwana Link Project is an initiative that will effectively link the ecosystems of inland Western Australia with the wetter forests of the south west corner. It aims to restore ecological connectivity from the woodlands of WA's Goldfields, via five of the region's significant wild places, to the karri and jarrah forests of the Margaret River area, a distance of almost 1,000 kilometres.

This is a cooperative effort from a broad range of community and non-government organisations. Initially, it is comprised of The Wilderness Society, Greening Australia, Fitzgerald Biosphere Group, Friends of the Fitzgerald, Mallee Fowl Preservation Group, and the Australian Bush Heritage Fund. A full-time Project Coordinator has been employed.

Collectively, the partner organisations bring together a wide spectrum of conservation strategies, including public advocacy, revegetation and landcare, land purchase and property covenanting, and the provision of incentives for conservation on private land. By working collectively to a long-term plan, each group's conservation efforts will be complementary - so that, when completed, there will be protected bush from Margaret River to Kalgoorlie and beyond.
At the western end of the project, the boundaries of the new 'old growth forest' National Parks (won as a result of the last State election) are being negotiated with WildCountry objectives in mind. Elsewhere, existing National Parks have been defended from mining and roading, and intensive landcare actions are now being undertaken.

The Gondwana Link Project represents a new way forward for conservation in Western Australia. It demonstrates that, by working together, we can 'right the wrongs' of the past and protect our great wild places forever. To find out more go to www.gondwanalink.org

The Gondwana Link vision is actively supported by The Nature Conservancy.