What better way to kick off 2024 than to share with you some amazing news: The Maalan Cloud Forest has been saved for conservation!
With the help of more than 1,000 donors, a significant matched-gift pledge from our conservation partner and some invaluable philanthropic donations, the property was settled on Friday.
Thank you to each and every one of you who made this incredible outcome possible, by donating or spreading the word. Your contribution means so much!
This is a significant win for conservation, and one that will have a lasting positive impact on the biodiversity of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area well into the future.
Maalan Cloud Forest in the landscape.
Bridging the gap in rainforest connectivity
The 83-hectare Maalan Cloud Forest in the Atherton Tablelands contains 45 hectares of high-altitude remnant rainforest habitat that is home to endemic and threatened species with nowhere else to go.
Once the remaining 35 hectares of cleared land has been revegetated and restored, it will complete an important Wet Tropics World Heritage Area (WHA) wildlife corridor, connecting Maalan National Park and Wooroonooran National Park.
This will give cloud forest inhabitants, including the endangered spectacled flying-fox, the southern cassowary, spotted-tail quoll, Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo, tooth-billed bowerbird and rare white lemuroid ringtail possum more room to roam, and safer passage as they traverse the landscape.
On the brink - the white lemuroid ringtail possum
What's next for the Maalan Cloud Forest
Settlement of this property took place on Friday, January 12, 2024.
We will now support our project partner, South Endeavour Trust, to revegetate the cleared land, which will involve the establishment of 125,000 new trees. This will complete the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area wildlife corridor and expand habitat for a nearby spectacled flying-fox and other threatened species.
The spectacled flying-fox
The ultimate goal is to protect and manage the Maalan Cloud Forest property through its gazettal as a nature refuge, and it is our intention to apply for this status. The Queensland Government’s Private Protected Area Program works with landholders who have an interest in protecting and managing the significant conservation values of their land in perpetuity. A nature refuge is established through a voluntary, binding conservation agreement between the landholder and the Department of Environment and Science on behalf of the Queensland Government.
The Maalan River flows through the property
South Endeavour Trust is a registered non-profit organisation that acquires and manages land for conservation. We successfully partnered with them in 2021 for the acquisition of Oakey Scrub near Cooktown and the Cheelonga Cloud Forest in 2022, and now we can add the Maalan Cloud Forest to the list!