PROTECTING SWAMPS IN WORLD HERITAGE AREA

Federal Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman has welcomed a $142,000 grant to help protect precious upland swamps in the Blue Mountains from factors like climate change and mining.

Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute has been granted the funding under the 2019/20 Australian Heritage Grant Program to complete the work, Ms Templeman said.

“The Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute will use the funding to develop a monitoring system for the conservation of upland swamps of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area,” Ms Templeman said.

“Water retention and ecological function in these swamps is being impacted by climate change, urban development, and mining.

“The monitoring will provide an early warning system to support remediation and develop an adaptive management strategy for their conservation by the land management agencies, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, and Blue Mountains City Council.

“The program will also provide intervention and restoration options in relation to threats like declining water volume and quality, and the loss of critical plant and animal species.

“Entire ecosystems in this precious World Heritage area are still struggling to recover from the summer bushfires, which Institute experts state has affected more than 800,000 hectares of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.

“Torrential rainfall that followed immediately after the fires also had a devastating effect on this area.

“I welcome the funding to conserve our precious World Heritage areas, and congratulate the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute on its successful appli