Agreements from the Upper Hunter Conservation tender are progressing with landholders beginning to receive their first annual management payments to support their conservation efforts.
The tender targeting Threatened Ecological Communities (TEC) in the Upper Hunter Shire local government area received 24 bids, with six agreements established to date. An additional two agreements are pending.
So far, the tender has signed 922 hectares of private land into conservation, with this expected to grow when all agreements are complete.
The new conservations areas will help protect critically endangered ecosystems, including the White Box – Yellow Box – Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland TEC and the Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest and woodland TEC.
To ensure long-term success, the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust is setting up ecological monitoring sites across these properties to track and support the condition of native vegetation.
The region’s cultural heritage will also be preserved following cultural walkovers conducted with Wanaruah Nation representatives, who identified and provided management recommendations on sites within the newly established conservation areas.
With the crop of new conservation agreement-holders and their respective conservation areas, BCT Regional Manager Ben Fitzpatrick said it was “a significant step in safeguarding native biodiversity and supporting sustainable land management in the Upper Hunter region”.