news, local-news, mowbray, park, andrew, davies, will, farm, forest, biodiveristy

A Wollondilly farmer and his family have tapped into a scheme that will ensure hectares of endangered forest in Mowbray Park is preserved. Andrew Davies is encouraging other landowners to do the same so Wollondilly maintains its rural character. Mr Davies’ family property, managed by his brother Will Davies, is used as a cattle farm and 72 hectares of land is preserved as a forest. The farmer and his partner Sarith Dekker manage the forest as part of the Office of Environment and Heritage’s biodiversity offsets scheme. “There are four different ecosystems of native forest preserved on the site including the endangered Shale Sandstone Transition Forest, Western Sydney Dry Rainforest and Sandstone Gully Forest as well as the critically endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland,” Mr Davies said. “We also have an endangered species of snail.” The biodiversity offsets scheme allows landowners to establish a biodiversity stewardship site on their land which generates credits to sell to developers or landholders who require those credits. Developers or landowners who undertake development or clearing must buy credits to offset their activity. Under the scheme an annual fee is paid to the landowner to manage the site. “Basically the amount of money we earn conserving the Cumberland Plain Woodland per hectare would far outweigh other agricultural pursuit in that forest,” Mr Davies said. “We didn’t want to sell the land to a developer to turn the land into medium density housing. “We wanted to conserve our open space. “The scheme lets us maintain the rural character of the shire.” Mr Davies’ family received millions of dollars to conserve the land. “My mother found out about the scheme in 2012, got the assessment done of our land and got credits for the site,” he said. “The scheme allowed us to save the farm and generate two streams of income. “We have invested the money in infrastructure for the farm.” Mr Davies and his partner run their business Little Eagle Bush Regeneration and they specialise in the maintenance of biobanked sites.

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