Southern Highlands
Partnerships
Organisations Involved in Partnership Activities: 15
Partnership Facilitator: Tim Beshara Greening Australia
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it :: phone 02 9560 9144
Although many areas in the Southern Highlands have been extensively cleared for agriculture and urban expansion there are still significant areas of natural vegetation, many protected as National Park or Reserves. The area contains 3 important woodland linkages, plus a rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest linkage associated with the Illawarra escarpment. In addition to linking the Morton National Park and Nattai National Park, the area has significant east-west values for a number of coastal wetland birds that travel inland during wetter seasons.
Urban expansion associated with the Sydney-Canberra development corridor, and the encroachment of rural subdivision blocks into the hillier country supporting remaining forest and woodlands, are significant threats that could further fragment habitats in this region.
The Southern Highlands partnership was created largely due to the enthusiasm of the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment Management Authority and Greening Australia. The partnership has developed a draft Conservation Action Plan, which seeks to focus attentions in the first instance on the western-most woodland linkage in the Burragorang Valley. This linkage is important as it has remained relatively intact, so more threatened species can be found in the woodlands and forests of the Wollondilly and Burrogorang Valleys than anywhere else in the Sydney Basin. See the Threatened and pest animals of Greater Southern Sydney publication for more information on threatened species.
In 2009 there has been extensive consultation on the draft Plan, with the aim of engaging landholders, business and local industry in the region to support the partnership and its efforts. The Great Eastern Ranges Initiative is supporting a significant social research pilot project in the region, which seeks to determine the conservation views of landholders. Findings from this research project will inform how conservation projects will seek to engage with the local community.
