Twenty sites have been chosen under the ACT Government’s new Connecting Nature, Connecting People initiative, serving as hubs for nature in the suburbs, and improving Canberra’s environmental resilience within a climate crisis, ACT environment minister Rebecca Vassarotti said.

As Canberra grows, habitat loss, fragmentation, and climate change threaten native plant and animal conservation, Ngunnawal cultural practices, and the community’s wellbeing, the government states. Connecting Nature, Connecting People is designed to help species move more freely in the urban landscape (‘ecological connectivity’), enrich and build the resilience of urban biodiversity, and enhance the community’s connection to nature.

The sites chosen are around Yarralumla, Tuggeranong, Ginninderra, Sullivans Creek, and Jerrabomberra Creek.  

“Each of these urban corridors are crucial areas of biodiversity, sensitive to ongoing disturbance, and prime real estate for native plants and animals,” Ms Vassarotti said.  

Under the initiative, ACT volunteer groups will receive a share of $500,000 to set up wildlife corridors, replant native species, and remove weeds.

“Funding for these twenty satellite sites will repair and reconnect the environmental damage caused by decades of development without environmental corridors,” Ms Vassarotti said.

“In effect, these projects are sewing our environment back together. 

“Unnatural fragmentation of habitats is one of the key threatening processes under ACT’s Nature Conservation Act and the key issue underpinning this initiative.”

The Government is working with ACT Catchment Groups to identify other sites where similar work can be undertaken.