Ediegarrup Biodiverse Restoration Project

Ediegarrup Biodiverse Restoration Project is an environmental planting project located near Boxwood Hill, approximately 140km east of Albany in the Fitz-Stirling region of Western Australia. Registered in June 2023, the project spans an area of 613.42 hectares on Goreng Noongar Country.

The region’s land use has historically been dominated by intensive broadacre agriculture, which has led to significant land clearing over the decades. Environmental planting projects like this involve establishing permanent, mixed-species native plantings on land that has been predominantly used for agricultural purposes for at least five years prior to project commencement. To satisfy standard methodology requirements, these projects generally require planting native trees at a density of at least 200 stems per hectare to achieve a permanent forest cover and effectively sequester carbon.

The environment in the Fitz-Stirling area is characterised by a semi-arid, Mediterranean climate with relatively low and declining annual rainfall averaging around 400mm. The soils in this ancient landscape are typically nutrient-poor, fragile, and sandy, with granitic rises that have become highly susceptible to erosion and rising salinity following historical agricultural clearing.

A remarkable aspect of this project is its strategic contribution to the Gondwana Link, aiming to restore a critical wildlife corridor that connects the Fitzgerald River and Stirling Range National Parks. Jointly managed by Bush Heritage Australia in partnership with Greening Australia, AstraZeneca, and One Tree Planted, the restoration effort is highly biodiverse, featuring the planting of over 135 local native plant species. Furthermore, the environmental efforts at Ediegarrup are independently audited and certified under the Accounting for Nature® Framework (Account ID: AU00057), establishing it as a benchmark for high-integrity environmental accounting and biodiversity outcomes.