River Country Biolink
River Country Biolink
The River Country Biolink is located in the mid-Murray River delta, an internationally significant biodiversity hotspot. It will connect the Wakool and Murray Rivers and the Murray Valley National Park and Campbell’s Island state forest through productive land.
Capacity to Deliver
The issue
WMLIG and its partners are collaborating with various stakeholders, including Gonn farmers, traditional owners, archaeologists, foresters, landscape rehydration experts, and environmental markets experts. Together, they are co-designing detailed landscape rehydration plans. The main goals of this initiative are to:
- Maximise the environmental benefits of well-managed and watered biolinks.
- Explore sustainable funding opportunities for extending biodiversity from protected areas across family farms.
The solution
Developed by WWF's Panda Labs, Innovate to Regenerate (I2R) is a program that aims to support regenerative, community-led solutions that encourage impact investment in priority areas such as food, biodiversity and climate, and to establish a powerful network equipped to regenerate Australia.
I2R provided the perfect forum and funding source for a WMLIG project designed to be a catalyst for best practice in future environmental market-funded initiatives in the mid-Murray inland delta. Through multi-disciplinary co-design and research, the participants are determining not just an optimal biolink development but enquiring into a local competitive advantage in future environmental markets.
An inland delta which supported high densities of permanent indigenous populations because of its abundant managed and natural biodiversity; a highly valuable carbon sink rich in forests and wetland complexes; a sophisticated irrigation system and the addition of proven landscape rehydration techniques, could make nature repair and carbon drawdown projects more viable in climate extremes than other locations across the country.
The impact
The project objective is to convene local and national experts to co-design an integrated carbon sink (reafforestation and wetland revegatation) and ecological restoration project that will be funded via access to environmental markets. Detailed landscape rehydration plans, a co-design workshop and property tour, a River Country Natural Capital Biolink Field Day and River Country Biolink Guide for decision support in developing aggregated environmental markets projects in the Murray River inland delta will be hosted or developed and promoted across a number of WMLIG and WWF partner networks.
Key facts
- 12 co-designers
- Barapa Barapa local knowledge
- Proximity to a nationally important archaeological site
- Focus on landscape rehydration techniques