The Coca-Cola Australia Foundation (CCAF) and Earthwatch Australia are working together to develop a unique program for marine pollution and wetland management in the lower Gulf of Carpentaria.
The $ 600,000 partnership will help achieve United Nations Goal 14 for Sustainable Development Underwater Life.
Gulf of Carpentaria
Together with Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation (CLCAC) and recycling experts Plastic Collective, Earthwatch will train 20 CLCAC Indigenous Land and Environment Rangers and 30 volunteers to help implement the Wetlands not Wastelands program over the next three years.
“This program is science driven and run by the local community. It will test a sustainable, community-based solution for the management and recycling of marine pollution in remote regions, ”said Malcolm Hudson, chairman of the CCAF.
"Once proven, this model could potentially be replicated to many other regional and remote locations in Australia and around the world."
Pollution is a major threat to the vast Gulf of Carpentaria wetland system, which has little or no recycling infrastructure and has been a hotspot for seasonal tourism.
The area is also home to thousands of unique species, including dugongs, sea turtles, migratory waders and key mangrove and salt marsh wetlands that play an important role in carbon sequestration.
Bottle caps of the shredder recycling machine
Cassandra Nichols, CEO of Earthwatch Australia, said: “Thanks to this generous grant from the Coca-Cola Australia Foundation, & # 39; Wetlands not Wastelands & # 39; brought to life and enables us to work directly with the CLCAC Rangers to develop a plan for the management of marine pollution and a plan testifying to future measures to preserve the valuable habitat of this region.
“We can also introduce two plastic shredders or plastic recycling machines in the Burketown and Normanton communities,” explains Ms. Nichols.
Murrandoo Yanner, CLCAC director and traditional owner, added: “The indigenous people of the lower Gulf of Carpentaria have always managed and cared for the unspoiled environment of land, sea, waterways and wetlands in our region.
"Thanks to this exciting new partnership with Earthwatch and Plastic and Collective and the generous support from the Coca-Cola Australia Foundation, we can do this even more efficiently."
The new grant is part of the CCAF's flagship funding round and has increased the total amount donated to its charity programs to more than $ 15 million since 2002.
"Wetlands not Wastelands" was the first of its kind to be published in Retail World Magazine.
