Samantha Morris has created a Crowdfunding campaign to help save Lot 157 in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest. Here she tells us why saving the Daintree and Lot 157 is so important. 

Samantha Morris in the Daintree Rainforest

The Daintree Lowland Rainforest is one of the oldest tropical rainforests on Earth, having existed continuously for 120 million years. The Daintree is home to ancient flora that provide an insight into the evolutiony of flowering plants. This Daintree is part of Australia's Wet Tropics World Heritage Are which is home to more than 3,000 plant species with new species still being discovered.

One rare plant, Idiospermum australiense, commonly known as the idiot fruit, is one of the most primitive flowering plants in the world and its discovery in the Daintree in 1970 is arguably Australia’s most significant botanical find. This plant evolved 120 million years old and exists relatively unchanged today.

There are more tree species in just 1ha of the Daintree Rainforest than in all of the UK, 142 of them rare and threatened. There are 12,000 species of insects, 13 mammals found nowhere else on Earth, and the greatest diversity of plants and animals found anywhere in Australia.

The greater Daintree area is home to 28% of our frog species. 90% of our bat and butterfly species and 34% of our mammal species.

It’s hard to comprehend, but in 1982, more than 7000ha of high conservation value rainforests were subdivided into 1136 blocks for rural residential development. Ads for this development appeared as far afield as the Wall Street Journal and people from all over Australia and the world snapped up a piece of ancient rainforest.

Rainforest4 Foundation launched in 2018 with a vision that the evolutionary processes in the Daintree are allowed to continue uninterrupted.

The plan is to buy back these residential blocks and return them to their rightful owners, the Kuku Yalanji people, who then work to have them added back to the Daintree National Park.

In the past year, they’ve purchased seven blocks, but Lot 157 might be the most significant purchase yet. It has development approval and existing tourism infrastructure so it’s a prime piece of real estate and if Rainforest4 Foundation doesn’t snap this up, someone else will. And not everyone is as passionate about protecting this ancient rainforest as they are.

Rainforest4 Foundation urgently needs to raise a final $40,000 to secure this block. The full cost of purchase is $400,000.

Please support Samantha with her Crowdfunding campaign. Please donate now. 

How buyback works 

Buyback works. In other places, where properties have been resumed for conservation and domestic residences have been removed, wilderness and wildlife have returned quickly. Rainforest4’s track record in the Daintree proves that the outcomes are significant.

Residential development is the single most significant and preventable threatening process in the Daintree. Buying these blocks back is the most effective way to prevent further development and conserve what is left of this ancient, living museum.

Please support Samantha with her Crowdfunding campaign. So far Samantha has raised $10,205. Please donate now. 

Eastern Kuku Yalanji – Original Custodians

The Eastern Kuku Yalanji are the original custodians of the Daintree Lowland Rainforest. Eastern Kuku Yalanji live along the coastlines, creeks, rivers and rainforests of the Daintree lowlands maintaining their language and customary lore as they have done for thousands of years.

Saving Lot 157 in the Daintree

Your donation of $25 will save ten square metres of this ancient rainforest and $100 will save 40 square metres. The great news is that if you donate before the end of February, your donation will be matched by an anonymous donor. That means if you donate $100, it will be doubled and you’ll effectively be saving 80 square metres of this incredible landscape.

Please support Samantha with her Crowdfunding campaign. Please donate now. 

Lot 157’s incredible conservation values

The endangered Cassowary, rare Bennett’s Tree-kangaroo, and the Musky Rat-kangaroo are all found on Lot 157, however, on this 8.093ha property, it is the rainforest itself that is exceptionally important.

The rainforest vegetation found on Lot 157 is the grandest and most archaic of all rainforests in Australia, possessing many primitive flowering plants. This is one of the reasons the adjoining Daintree National Park was declared as a World Heritage Area. It’s just so important and special.

There are many very large trees reaching 35 meters tall with impressive buttress roots. The trees are festooned with epiphytes being ferns and orchids with large lianas and other vines cascading from above.

On Lot 157 there’s also a pristine rainforest creek. A recent aquatic ecology survey found a total of 14 freshwater fish species on Lot 157 and neighbouring Lot 155. This represents about 56% of the total known species in the entire Cooper Creek basin.

Please support Samantha with her Crowdfunding campaign. Please donate now. 

If you have questions about the buy-back program please visit the Rainforest 4 Foundation website at www.Rainforest4.org.