The Year in Review documents Greening Australia’s efforts and impact for people and nature each year.
In 2022, our 40th year, our mandate for restoring nature has only become more urgent. We are leaning into this pivotal decade for ecosystem restoration, sharpening our focus on what Australia and the world needs us to do.
We are proud to share our tangible impact in our Year in Review 2022, as well as our plans for scaling up our nature-based solutions to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss.
Watch this 90 second summary of our impact this year.
The carbon market represents huge potential to drive action on both climate change and biodiversity loss. This year, Greening Australia and Canopy registered Australia’s largest ever aggregation for native reforestation carbon with the Clean Energy Regulator. The aggregation has brought together seven landholders from four states and planted an area 220 times the size of the MCG.
Photo: Seedlings for one of the aggregated properties. Credit Annette Ruzicka.
At our 2021 AGM, we formalised a Thriving on Country Committee to the Board. These Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisors then helped lead cultural learning and guide organisation-wide activities to foster and embed reconciliation this year. We are continuing to develop and co-design lasting restoration partnerships supporting an Indigenous-led restoration sector.
Photo: Launching the Woorabinda Healthy Country Plan and ranger program this year, co-design in action. Credit Melissa Mills.
Our purchase of Jarrega Farm in Western Australia represents a new frontier for what’s possible in restoring landscapes at scale. Greening Australia is working with Traditional Owners, local community and regional businesses to restore over 1,400 hectares there. There’s exciting scope to trial experimental techniques to overcome common environmental restoration challenges and share our learnings.
Photo: Direct seeding at Jarrega this season. Credit Jesse Collins.
We reached the milestone of delivering our Cooling the Schools initiative to over 100 schools in Sydney, and expanded the initiative to South Australia with a eight-school pilot in Adelaide. These plantings are designed to create cooler, greener, healthier and more climate resilient schoolgrounds and communities, while also empowering children to take climate action into their own hands.
Photo: SA students planting through Cooling the Schools. Credit Michael Haines.
Stopping water pollutants at the source means clean, clear water at the Great Barrier Reef for people and nature to enjoy. We repaired multiple eroding gullies this year, like this one at Footes Hill. We worked with the landholders to undertake major earthworks to reshape, revegetate and fence this priority gully in the Burdekin River catchment, saving 555 tonnes per year of fine sediment from reaching the Reef.
Photo: The changes at Footes Hill will have a lasting impact on water quality and habitat condition.
We established an incredible 3.7 million native plants across 3,806 hectares in the 2022 planting season for two major partners – AstraZeneca and Officeworks. To scale up, we mobilised the nursery industry to grow tens of thousands of seedlings and sourced over 1,000 kilograms of native seed. We also re-engineered and increased the capacity of our direct seeding fleet and expanded engagement with landholders.
Photo: Greening Australia and AstraZeneca team members at a 2022 project site in Tasmania. Credit Adam Gibson.
Greening Australia partnered with Bank Australia to commission the Money Tree, a tangible symbol of the interconnection between the environment and the economy. The artwork formed part of a national campaign to raise awareness of the value of nature. We backed up the message of the Money Tree by highlighting evidence that supports it, in a White Paper produced with Australian and global experts.
Photo: Artist Michael Moerkerk with the Money Tree. Credit Christopher Chan.
