2017-10-13 Special Meeting

SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA                                                             13 OCTOBER 2017


7.    Long Term Opportunities

At this stage, no detailed work has been done on other long term opportunities that may arise from
this project. That can be done as the project unfolds over coming years. However, it is worth
flagging some of these possible opportunities at this stage to highlight the potential for this project
to bring additional benefits. Examples of opportunities may include:

7.1. Koala Research
This will be a high profile project that has the preservation and restoration of koala habitat as one
of its central elements. As such, this project will probably lend itself to long term scientific research
(probably associated with a University). It could also lead to a physical presence on the site to
provide an information centre or the like to support Koala research and community education. This
will be dependent on external funding opportunities and a cost/benefit analysis of any such
proposal.

7.2. External Grants
Based on recent history, there is likely to be external funding available for bushland restoration and
Koala preservation projects. For example, the Commonwealth has run Green Army projects in the
past and projects such as this could assist in rehabilitation and may provide for opportunities for
organisations such as Landcare to access such funding. In the private sector, philanthropists have
allocated funding towards environmental projects. For example, the Body Shop currently has on
offer funding of $420,000 towards projects that promote broad scale rehabilitation (Landcare is
currently examining that option). While these grant funds are possible, they have not been factored
into the costings at this stage but should be seen as potentially making the project less costly for
Council in the long term.

7.3. Carbon Offsets
We are currently exploring whether there will be any opportunity to gain carbon offsets for this
project. Initial inquiries indicate that there are significant hurdles before this project would qualify
but further research is being undertaken.

7.4. Noosa Trail Network
The Noosa Trail Network already passes through the Yurol forest section of this project. There
may be an opportunity to expand the trail network into the Ringtail forest area although that is of
course, dependant on our long term strategy for our trail network. Opportunities to expand the
mountain biking network at Tewantin are also possible. This is particularly the case where there
may be a "blank canvas" in the cleared pine PLA areas at Ringtail. The current Tewantin mountain
biking facility has been fully funded by the State and community groups and further development
in the Ringtail area is dependent on that third party funding.

7.5. Indigenous Food Trail
With proposed planting activities in the pine PLA areas, it may be possible to develop an indigenous
food trail that would provide an additional tourism experience and opportunities for our local
indigenous community to showcase their knowledge of local flora and their use in indigenous
culture. This could be explored as part of our ongoing development of our working relationship
with our local indigenous community but of course, would likely be dependent on external grant
funding and having a local indigenous organisation take responsibility for such a project.




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