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Map of the 'Gondwana Link' in South western Australia.

South-western Australia is well recognised for its rich ecological diversity. Tens of millions of years of evolutionary processes across some of the Earth’s oldest land surfaces have produced four times as many plant species than are found in all of the rainforest across Northern Australia and down the continent’s east coast to Tasmania.

Intensive agriculture has heavily fragmented these ecosystems. An alliance of environmental and other community groups is working to achieve the Gondwana Link vision. Gondwana Link aims to restore ecological connectivity from the woodlands of the Goldfields, through the Fitzgerald River and Stirling Range National Parks, to the karri and jarrah forests of the south-west tip of the continent – a distance spanning approximately 1000 kilometres.

 

Ecological wonderland

South-western Australia is one of the world’s 25 ‘biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities’. Covering only five percent of the Australian land mass, this area has an estimated 8,000 plant species – more than one-third of Australia’s known flowering plants – including some of the most unusual plants on Earth. Of these, 75 percent are endemic to the south-west and around 30 percent are yet to be scientifically described. So much more is yet to be learned about this ecological wonderland.

Profile: The Western Pygmy-possum Cercartetus concinnus

Western Pygmy Possum. Photo: Jiri Lochman, Lochman Transparencies

During the day these tiny possums curl up in a nest of gum leaves in a tree hollow or in the fringing leaves of a grass-tree. At night they emerge to chase insects and drink nectar. Western Pygmy-possums prefer habitats with a dense shrubby understorey that provide food and shelter. They are most abundant in the mallee, woodlands and forests of south-west Western Australia. While small remnants of bushland can provide suitable habitat, they may not be large enough to support viable populations of Pygmypossums and other ground mammals in the long term. Gondwana Link is linking together the remnants of bushland scattered across the wheatbelt of Western Australia. These connections will enable previously isolated populations to link together – making them less prone to local extinction.

Gondwana Link is a cooperative effort between Greening Australia, Australian Bush Heritage Fund, The Wilderness Society, Fitzgerald Biosphere Group and the Friends of Fitzgerald River National Park. Strong interest is being shown in the project by local Indigenous groups. Each organisation contributes in ways which match their expertise.  The audacious vision, the scale of the work and the collaborative nature of Gondwana Link make it an excellent example of WildCountry’s philosophy and approach. The work of the WildCountry Science Council and the connectivity principles they developed have helped Gondwana Link to carry out conservation planning at a range of scales, so that this vision can become a reality.

Visit www.gondwanalink.org for more.

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