Barrington to Hawkesbury Climate Corridors Alliance
The Community Environment Network is a foundation member of an alliance of NSW environmental groups calling for a moratorium on land clearing within defined climate corridors between Barrington Top and the Hawkesbury River.
Research from the Barrington to Hawkesbury Climate Corridors Alliance shows that as many as 45 per cent of NSW native animals and 72 per cent of native plants will have little or no sustainable habitat by 2070, based on a plausible worst case climate scenario.
Threatened species are in substantial peril from climate change within the NSW North Coast, Hunter and Greater Sydney regions. The natural environment of the region is already under intense pressure from agriculture, forestry and urban development.
Over 7000 ha of the region’s native bushland has been earmarked for greenfield urban development in the past 10 years. About 6500ha of the region’s bushland was lost between 2008 and 2017, almost a third due to logging in the southern Mid-coast local government area.
Add the impacts of climate change to those existing pressures and very little habitat will be left by 2070 which is why the Alliance called for a commitment from both major parties in the 2023 NSW State Government Election.
The Alliance wants a specific strategy included in the 2041 Regional Plans for the Hunter and Central Coast to protect Climate Corridors – ‘climate refugia’ or havens – for surviving flora and fauna.
The National Parks and State Forests of the region will, by 2070, support climate refugia for many of the threatened fauna species predicted to decline.
These areas must be protected now from further degradation and connected with landscape-scale corridors that will also need to be protected from clearing and development.
The Barrington to Hawkesbury Climate Corridors Alliance argues that protected climate corridors will need to be supported by detailed zoning and development guidelines and investment programs.
The Alliance believes incentives will need to be put in place to encourage private landholders to protect, manage and rehabilitate native vegetation within climate corridors.
This would require radical reform of the NSW Biodiversity Offset Scheme. There will need to be voluntary acquisition of large areas of privately-owned high-quality habitat.
State Forests will need to be transferred to National Park reserves as Regional Parks or other appropriate reserve categories and managed by local communities for conservation and recreation.
Barrington Top and the Hawkesbury River are two iconic NSW landmarks, representative of the state’s beauty and biodiversity. They also represent the end points of the coastal region where the greatest number and range of threatened species are likely to be diminished by climate change.
NSW politicians can take steps now to create refugia so we can protect as many threatened species as possible from the perils of climate change.
For more information about the B2H project, visit
