Several philanthropic donors have already provided over half our proposed budget for the film, but we need more to finish it off with style. Please visit our crowd-sourcing web page ( http://igg.me/at/brtfilm ) that takes donations for the film. You can watch our video 'promo' featuring prominent environmental educator Rob Gell, and see what donation suits you. Also, please spread the word about our project to friends and colleagues in your workplace, landcare/tree planting group, or conservation organisation through email, Facebook, Twitter and good old-fashioned word-of-mouth.
Our film will show that landholders in south-east Australia are increasingly collaborating to put diversity and complexity back into the region’s denuded landscapes. Landcare environmental plantings, agroforestry, biolinks or a ‘sustainable’ farm management plan are all contributing.
And by marrying Landcare’s conservation ethic with the imperatives of commercial production, we can tackle one big impediment – economic cost. ‘Analogue forests’ do this. They are based on the structure and content of an area’s original forest, but include economic resources (e.g. timber trees) within the new forest’s layers so landholders can gain income. Our very own ‘biorich plantation’ is based on these principles of integrating conservation and production.
Linking people across landscapes, analogue forestry gives landholders greater incentive and ability to act as custodians, caring for their country – rediscovering their country and recreating some of the beauty and ecological function that existed in the well-managed valleys and woodlands of Aboriginal Australia.
Our film will show the great work being carried out by community groups revegetating our region, and advance the concept of analogue forests as a way of helping achieve these goals.