00:00This parcel of land in the Nandewal range near Bingara is more than a hundred times
00:07the size of Sydney's Taronga Zoo and was once pristine habitat for wildlife.
00:14Now in a world first, the Taronga Conservation Society wants to restore it to its former
00:19glory.
00:20We're really creating an ecosystem, an ecosystem that can support over 35 threatened
00:25species.
00:26Up to a million seedlings will be planted to re-establish critically endangered box gum
00:31woodland decimated by land clearing along the east coast.
00:36Protecting what's left is simply not enough.
00:39Right now we're seeing species decline despite the protected forests that we've got in place.
00:46So we need to create forests, we need to create habitat.
00:50Animals born through Taronga's breeding programs including koalas, platypus and regent honey
00:55eaters will eventually find a home in the wild unfenced site.
00:59What we're doing is thinking about as we restore the habitat, what species have the potential
01:05to naturally recruit to come back to the site versus what might need some help that we might
01:10actually bring from one of our zoos.
01:12There are only about 300 of the critically endangered regent honey eaters left in the wild, but the
01:17breeding program here at Taronga has been hugely successful.
01:20Just a few months ago keepers released almost 70 of the birds into the bush in the Hunter.
01:26Australia has one of the most shameful records in the world.
01:28We have the highest level of extinctions.
01:31What this does is turn this around.
01:33It gives us hope that we can do better.
01:35Taronga hopes it's a blueprint for future sites that could eventually restore two million
01:40hectares of habitat.
Comments