‘Gondwana Link’ —- It is an ambitious project that attempts to restore the ecology of a more than 25-million hectare swathe of land in Western Australia, running from the arid red interior of the continent to the wet forests of the southwest coast. It aims to convert the farmland, that fragments it (and is dedicated to the monotonous hectares of wheat and sheep progressively cleared over the past 60 years), back to bush.
According to the New Scientist: “The belt of land lies mainly within one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. To give you some idea what that means, it’s been estimated that the 329,000-hectare Fitzgerald River National Park that lies within the belt has as many plant species as all of Australia’s rainforests combined.
“Named for the geologically ancient southern supercontinent that was fragmented by shifting tectonic plates, Gondwana Link has now involved private donors, local farmers, big companies such as Shell, and a variety of non-governmental organisations, including The Nature Conservancy and The Wilderness Society. The 10% of the swathe they plan to restore is still a huge chunk of real estate, so for now Gondwana Link is concentrating on two areas, where they are buying up strategically placed farms and replanting them with indigenous species.
“When they do buy a property, sometimes they plant native peas and wattle in strips, which may not look particularly natural but does provide protection for certain rare species of wallaby. The next year, aromatic sandalwood trees are sown. Sandalwood is a native, but it can also be harvested, and profits used to fund future restoration.
“One short-term goal is to restore some relatively small regions that were cleared only 30 years ago. Securing such pockets of land for perpetuity could be Gondwana Link’s most important contribution to plant conservation, according to Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, London, UK.” More here…
(A commentator states: “It should be stated somewhere that climate change in SW Oz has been researched intensively by US and Australian researchers over the past 10-15 years…and been laid squarely at the feet of land clearing for farmland. The micro-climatic effects in this case are driving any climate change seen. About time greenhouse driven climate change got a reprieve!)
Australia, although a strong economy, faces other environmental challenges, especially availability of water. A crisis of sort was created last year… For details please click here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.