Protecting and restoring conservation land

Under the Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan (CPCP), the Government will create new public reserves and private conservation land. This will help connect important areas of habitat and help restore degraded areas of land. The Office of Strategic Lands and the National Parks and Wildlife Service are both helping to deliver this program.

The Georges River Koala National Park protects a primary koala corridor along the Georges River between Appin and Long Point. In April 2022, 54 hectares of public land at Lysaght Road was transferred from the Office of Strategic Lands to the National Parks and Wildlife Service to create the new reserve.

In April 2024, another 916 hectares were transferred to the National Parks and Wildlife Service. This is a significant milestone towards our commitment to transfer all publicly owned land within the park between Long Point and Appin, to the National Parks and Wildlife Service by late 2026.

In collaboration with the Office of Strategic Lands and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Department has also started work on extending the Gulguer Nature Reserve. As of 30 June 2024, the Department has bought a total of 6 properties in this area, totalling 145 hectares.

Learn about the biodiversity stewardship programs under the CPCP.

Protecting biodiversity through stewardship agreements

We are working with the Biodiversity Conservation Trust to encourage landholders to create new biodiversity stewardship sites in the CPCP area. Landowners can enter a biodiversity stewardship agreement to permanently protect and manage an agreed land area for conservation in return for financial and other benefits.

As more than 75% of the remaining native trees and plants in the Cumberland sub-region are on private land, stewardship agreements are an important way of supporting western Sydney’s biodiversity over the long term.

The Biodiversity Conservation Trust is working with interested landholders in the CPCP area to help them create new biodiversity stewardship sites. We are funding the Biodiversity Conservation Trust to conduct feasibility assessments and develop business cases for interested landholders.

Read more about the CPCP biodiversity stewardship program:

• Biodiversity Stewardship Program Infographic (PDF, 1.7 MB)
• Biodiversity Stewardship Program Guidelines (PDF, 4.6 MB)

The Department is buying biodiversity credits when they become available on the market to contribute towards its conservation targets. The department buys these credits through tenders and auctions that the Biodiversity Conservation Trust and the Credit Supply Taskforce hold.

Since 2021, the Department has bought and retired 1,082 Cumberland Plain Woodland credits worth about $42 million. These contribute to protecting 111 hectares of this critically endangered woodland.

For more information on biodiversity credits, go to NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust.

Ecological restoration is important to improve the condition of native trees, plants and habitat within the CPCP strategic conservation area.

Restoration

• Improving the condition of existing vegetation.
• Creating or improving connectivity between important remaining native trees and plants.
• Reconstructing over-cleared vegetation communities, such as the critically endangered ecological community, Cumberland Plain Woodland.

We select ecological restoration sites from the strategic conservation area that support biodiversity features of regional significance. Focusing restoration activities in these areas has the greatest potential to deliver long-term outcomes for the Cumberland Plain.

Read the key achievements so far:

• Completed 33.5 ha to restore koala habitat and Threatened Ecological Communities (TECs) across 3 sites in Appin and Long Point within Warranmadhaa National Park, on Dharawal Country:
  • Planted 71,000 native trees and shrubs, with a minimum 40% of trees made up of local Koala feed trees.
  • 13.5 ha of bush regeneration to improve the condition of Cumberland Plain Woodland and Shale-sandstone Transition Forest TECs.
  • 20 ha of ecological reconstruction at Appin, planting and direct seeding that aims to restore paddocks to koala habitat and Cumberland Plain Woodland and Shale-sandstone Transition Forest TECs.
• Began preparation for a new site in Appin in spring 2025, it is 30 ha in size and aims to reconstruct koala habitat and local TECs and within the Warranmadhaa National Park.
• Planning for restoration works in 2026 that will support the construction of the Ousedale Creek Corridor koala crossing.
• The Australian Royal Botanic Gardens PlantBank sourced 358 collections (over 500,000 seeds) of provenance seed for use in CPCP restoration projects.
• Purchased over 425 kg of native seed to deliver direct seeding and growing plants for restoration works.
• Continuing to work closely with the ecological restoration working group on delivery of the restoration implementation strategy and on-ground works.
• Delivered the Cumberland Plain Woodland Knowledge Infrastructure Project with the Australian Botanic Garden of Sydney. The project has provided guidance for PlantBank to undertake seed collections to maximise genetic diversity and adaptive potential for Cumberland Plain ecological communities under future climates.