Green grants to expand urban forest

Councils across Greater Sydney are sharing in more than a million dollars' worth of funding to help create a cooler, greener and more appealing city.

The funding, delivered through the inaugural round of the NSW Government’s Greener Neighbourhoods program, will assist the delivery of 32 exciting and diverse initiatives which will have real-world outcomes to help see the city’s tree canopy expand.

From a Tiny Forest Project in the Northern Beaches, to supporting Cumberland City Council’s ‘Trees are tops blitz’ as well as important tree inventory work by Burwood Council, the grants tie in with both state and local governments’ ambitious plans for the green future of Greater Sydney.

Minister for Planning and Minister for Homes Anthony Roberts said the Government has committed to achieving an ambitious target of 40 per cent urban tree canopy cover for Greater Sydney by 2036, with work well underway to reach the goal.

“We’re on track to hit our target of planting one million trees by the end of 2022, and we’re working towards a bigger target of five million across Greater Sydney by 2030,” Mr Roberts said.

“The Greener Neighbourhoods program is an important tool in helping keep that momentum going.”

All Sydney councils have access to data showing the extent of Greater Sydney’s canopy cover, along with a Greener Neighbourhoods Guide to assist with the development or updating of urban forest strategies. A further updated tree canopy data set will be collected later this year and will be shared with councils to enable further analysis of trends across Greater Sydney.

The Greener Neighbourhoods program has been co-designed by the NSW Government in collaboration with councils and Resilient Sydney.

For more information and a full list of grant recipients, visit the Greener Neighbourhoods page.