Blue Heart Sunshine Coast is a collaborative project focused on sustainable floodplain management in the Maroochy River catchment. Covering over 5000 hectares of public and private land, it plays a vital role in flood storage to protect the built environment.
A partnership between Sunshine Coast Council, Queensland's Department of Environment and Unitywater, the Blue Heart project is tackling ecosystem health on many levels.
Blue Heart project works to:
The project also addresses climate change impacts. Rising sea levels are expected to turn parts of the area into estuarine wetlands, creating opportunities for new land uses.
The Council works with landholders to explore options that build economic and environmental resilience, including blue carbon and environmental offsets.
The initiative also Investigates and supports new uses for the surrounding rural and agricultural lands, including economic opportunities for landowners.
Collaboration with partners ensures project success on the ground and for the people and communities in the local areas.
The work not only protects the area for the benefit of the local community, but also involves the local community in restoration through citizen science.
The work protects the area's biodiversity and natural beauty, ensuring they remain a great place to visit and recreate in.
First Nations Traditional Custodians, the Kabi Kabi peoples, have been involved in ecological restoration projects in the Blue Heart and were present to witness the rewetting of the land and safeguard First Nations cultural heritage on the site.
Within 20 minutes of the first tidal structure’s removal, fish were moving in to explore, followed by seeds of two different mangrove species.
Sunshine Coast Council is restoring two former cane land sites in the Blue Heart to estuarine ecosystems, which will generate Australian Carbon Credit Units by capturing ‘blue carbon’: carbon stored in marine and coastal ecosystems.
This is the first blue carbon project formally registered by the Australian Government’s Clean Energy Regulator, in a defining moment for the future of blue carbon nationally.
It means a healthier Maroochy River with more fish breeding grounds, greater biodiversity, protected flood storage, opportunities for our Traditional Custodians to care for Country, more tourism opportunities and places for our community to explore and experience nature.
Learnings will be shared with landholders in the Blue Heart who may be interested in investigating blue carbon opportunities for their own properties.
A partnership between Sunshine Coast Council, Queensland's Department of Environment, and Unitywater.
Watch to learn more about the Blue Heart initiative and the opportunities it brings to the Sunshine Coast region
Healthy Land & Water
Level 11, 240 Queen St
GPO Box 735
MEANJIN (BRISBANE)
QLD 4001
Australia
Healthy Land and Water Ltd
ABN 91 115 662 989
