What is the Bushfire Recovery for Wildlife and Habitat Community Grants?
The Bushfire Recovery for Wildlife and Habitat Community Grants is a program to support local community groups to deliver bushfire recovery activities for native flora and fauna supporting broader long-term recovery and resilience.
The program is part of the Australian Government’s $200 million investment in bushfire recovery for native plants, animals, ecological communities and natural assets.
Objectives
The objectives of this grant opportunity are to encourage recovery efforts in areas affected by the 2019-20 bushfires by:
- supporting recovery of native flora and fauna
- involving local communities, community groups and Traditional Owners, in delivering bushfire recovery activities for native flora and fauna.
The program is confined to bushfire-affected areas within the eastern and southern part of Australia affected by the 2019-20 bushfires, or adjacent to an affected area.
Funding
The Australian Government has announced a total of $10 million over two years for the Bushfire Recovery for Wildlife and Habitat Community Grants program from 2020-21 to 2021-22.
The minimum grant is $5,000 and the maximum grant is $150,000.
Eligible Projects
To be eligible your project must:
- be aimed at delivering activities that will directly benefit native flora and fauna impacted by the 2019-20 bushfires
- have at least $5,000 in eligible expenditure
- involve local communities and/or community organisations and/or Indigenous groups/Traditional Owners in engagement and/or delivery activities
- demonstrate consultation, coordination or cooperation with an appropriately qualified entity (e.g. State Government, Natural Resource Management Organisation) or person to ensure that the proposed project and activities are suitable for the location
- be completed by 1 April 2022
- be delivered within or adjacent to an area that has been affected by the 2019-20 bushfires in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria or Western Australia
Eligible activities must directly relate to the project and may include at least one of the following:
- provision of supplementary shelter, nest boxes and artificial hollows
- on-ground bushfire recovery activities
- eradicating or reducing the impact of pest animals, for example cats, foxes, deer etc
- eradicating or reducing the impact of diseases
- control of invasive weed species through physical, chemical or biological treatments (physical treatments may include Indigenous burning practices.)
- seed collection and propagation of native plant species for use in revegetation (applicants are responsible for identifying and obtaining appropriate permits for land access and collecting seed)
- revegetation in burnt areas using native plant species that are known to be indigenous to the site and represent the type of vegetation community existing on the site before the 2019-20 bushfires or historically
- fencing to protect sensitive or regenerating areas by preventing access by people or stock or native herbivores
- protecting waterways, for example by controlling gully and streambank erosion, fencing off, replanting
- erosion control in burnt areas through installation of gabions, bunding, or riparian buffering and revegetation using native plant species indigenous to the site
- flora and fauna surveys, habitat mapping, data recording, spatial mapping and modelling but only where these form part of a project that includes on-ground bushfire recovery activities
Timing
Applications close 27 November 2020.
