The eco-gift that keeps on giving

Christmas!  It’s a moment in our busy lives when we take time out to enjoy the company of our friends and families and celebrate the spirit of care.  These days, we mark this moment with gifts.  We offer gifts as symbols of thoughtfulness and thankfulness, of sharing good fortune with those we love.

As they pile up under the Christmas tree, have you ever reflected on the transitory nature of many of these presents?  They can be as fleeting as Christmas itself, put under the tree in December, and forgotten in the back of the cupboard by Easter.  On the other hand, there are also more lasting legacies of such gifts; the often overlooked and undesirable environmental costs, production and transport costs, excessive packaging, and finally, the life as landfill.

What if you could give a gift that keeps on giving: a special gift that not only demonstrates you care for the recipient, but also for Australia’s unique animals and plants and environment?  And this gift would keep on giving for generations to come.

This Christmas, Bush Heritage Australia is encouraging Australians to choose an “eco-gift”.  In making a donation to Bush Heritage as a gift to a friend or relative, you will be helping to protect Australia’s land, water and wildlife.

Bush Heritage is a national non-profit organisation that is committed to conserving Australia’s animals and plants and their habitats over the long term.  It achieves this by using the best available science to acquire and manage land of the greatest importance for conservation.  Bush Heritage staff also work in partnership with other organisations and individuals to support conservation on privately owned land.

Bush Heritage is Australia’s most widely supported private land conservation organisation.  Over 17,000 people have provided support, as donors, volunteers, or partners in conservation or research.  Through the goodwill of these supporters, 29 reserves have been acquired across Australia to date, totalling over 720,000 hectares.  From the remnant york gum woodlands in south-western Australia to the dunefields and ephemeral wetlands of the Simpson Desert, these reserves are home to at least 83 threatened vegetation communities and 445 threatened species of native plants and animals. 

One of the most recent acquisitions has been Yourka Station, located in one of Australia’s biodiversity hotspots in far-north Queensland.  A highlight in the assessment of this property by Bush Heritage ecologists was the discovery of nests of the red goshawk, Australia’s rarest bird of prey.  Having obtained a significant contribution to this purchase from the Australian Government’s National Reserve System Programme, it was the generosity of donors that secured Yourka as a reserve to be managed for conservation for the long term. 

Your eco-gift can help secure such areas of Australian country as “landscapes for life”, as protected places for Australian wildlife and as a natural legacy for future generations of Australians.  Through Bush Heritage’s commitment to the long-term management of these reserves, this Christmas gift will keep on giving.

So this festive season, as the presents accumulate under the tree, you might add a special Bush Heritage card to the pile.  This card is a gesture of care for the recipient and for Australia’s unique biodiversity.  The card may sit under a pine tree in your lounge room, but the gift itself may be helping to shelter a small native mouse beneath an old-growth york gum in WA or protecting a red goshawk nesting up a tree in far-north Queensland.