In partnership with Greening Australia and the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, the Blue Carbon Lab is one of the recipients of DELWP’s Community Climate Change Adaptation grants (3CA) to develop a 1-year ‘Wetland Restoration Citizen Science Program’ in the Gippsland region.
The program will engage, educate, and empower Gippsland communities on climate adaptation, by transforming them into citizen scientists that contribute to local climate-ready actions (i.e. coastal wetland restoration) and collect key data to inform wetland management practices in Victoria.
To build climate-change capacity, this project capitalizes on the Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration program (BRP- DELWP) which will conduct on-ground actions to restore degraded coastal wetlands along Lake Wellington in the Gippsland region. Our aim is to use this local mitigation action as an opportunity to (i) educate local communities on climate change and wetland carbon sequestration, (ii) engage them in the collection of scientific data, and (ii) involve them in local Climate-Ready actions.With the help of GLaWAC, we will deliver immersive learning experiences for 160+ local community members, including:
- Educational workshops on climate change, Traditional Owner cultural heritage, ecosystem services, and Blue Carbon.
- Field trip and Citizen Science data collection activities in the wetland, where participants can experience the local Climate-Ready benefits wetlands provide and be trained to collect Blue Carbon soil cores, take greenhouse gas measures, conduct wildlife surveys, and monitor vegetation plots.
