15/04/2005 - The Australian
Government will give a conservation group
$40,000 to trap cane toads heading towards
Darwin.
The funding was announced today at a Ministerial
Council meeting in Darwin, by Australian Ministers
for the Environment and Heritage, Senator
Ian Campbell, and Fisheries, Forestry and
Conservation, Senator Ian Macdonald and Member
for Solomon, Dave Tollner.
Senator Campbell said the trapping project
by Frogwatch was aimed at controlling the
cane toad invasion towards Darwin.
"When cane toads arrived in Australia
in the 1930s we could not have imagined the
devastating impact they would have on our
native species," he said.
"The Australian Government, which is
represented on the National Cane Toad Taskforce,
has been heavily investing in activities to
address the problem. We've already provided
over $5 million for a variety of research
programs and promising biological control
studies.
"The $40,000 Envirofund grant for Frogwatch
North will help the group deliver its own
innovative approach, with the installation
of cane toad traps at key wetland sites near
Darwin, Palmerston and Bachelor.
"These delicate ecosystems, which provide
critical habitat for threatened species, will
be better protected as the traps aim to capture
breeding pairs of cane toads before they can
colonise and destroy an area."
The Envirofund grant allows for control activities
with existing trapping techniques to go ahead
immediately. The project complements the Northern
Territory Government's cane toad trapping
competition.
Senator Macdonald said Frogwatch North will
work with other community-based environmental
groups on the project, highlighting the partnership
approach of the Envirofund programme.
"Once traps are in place they will be
monitored by on-site Landcare volunteers or
other groups who are already hard at work
caring for the local landscape," he said.
"It's hoped the project will help other
communities in the Northern Territory, Queensland,
New South Wales and now Western Australia
who are fighting the spread of this pest.
"The Australian Government Envirofund
is all about local people delivering local
solutions to environmental problems, with
grants of up to $30,000 available to community
groups for on-ground work.
"The cane toad invasion must be halted
before it decimates our unique biodiversity,
and Frogwatch North has risen to the challenge."
Full list of successful applicants for the
second Envirofund round for 2004-05 will be
announced soon. Envirofund is the community
component of the Australian Government's $3
billion Natural Heritage Trust.
