Natura Pacific connecting our community one seedling at a time

For more than a decade, Natura Pacific and Lendlease have been planting the seeds for a sustainable future for our community through the retainment of biodiversity.

Natura Pacific Director and Environmental Scientist, Kieran Richardt said as a social enterprise, Natura had a key focus on environmental consultancy and environmental education services within the Yarrabilba community.

“We started on the project before shovel touched the soil, working with Lendlease on planning and design of the overall master planned community, ensuring the urban environment works in harmony with the natural environment,” said Kieran.

“Having biodiversity on a site is critical for any community. It’s critical in creating a sense of space, for ecosystem service provisioning (e.g. clean air, pollination, healthy soils, shade etc) and for people to have ownership over an area.

“At Yarrabilba, the longevity of flora and fauna is enhanced throughout areas in the community. In these pockets, species movement and dispersal is facilitated, especially for birds. There are also a range of large wildlife corridors that runs across the site, connecting the east and the west as well as a vital corridor into the neighbouring Plunkett Conservation Park.”

To ensure the future sustainability and thriving biodiversity of our community, Natura are working closely with our school students, educating the next generation on the importance of conserving and protecting our natural environment.

One of these educational programs is educating students on the endangered plant species, only found in our community.

There are currently over 4,400  Melaleuca irbyanas, or the Weeping Paperbark, housed in the Yarrabilba nursery, which have had their seeds harvested through an education program called the Connecting Communities Project and are now propagated successfully at several local prisons.

“It’s critical to be able to create environmental awareness for the next generation. I don’t think kids these days have as much access and exposure to their natural surroundings, and threatened species are a great avenue to get them involved,’ he said.

“Through our tree planting initiatives, students at Yarrabilba get a better appreciation of nature and a better sense of self-worth and understanding of the environment around, resulting in a strong sense of community.

“Some of the positive things we’ve seen through our work at Yarrabilba have been the identification of rare and threatened plants, that are now being boosted in number at the site through our prison program. Today over 40,000 plants have been grown and planted as a result of the program. 

Lendlease Yarrabilba established a circular economy strategy in 2019 and have been recognised as an industry leader within master planned communities. Creating a new era in sustainable living, Yarrabilba is attempting to regenerate our environment, working with Natura Pacific on biodiversity conservation in our community.

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To find out more about the Connecting Communities Project run by Lendlease and Natura Pacific, check out this short film here