More than $6.8 billion has been spent on bush regeneration in Australia over the past 20 years.
Replanting degraded land is more than just a matter of "plant and pray, walk away". High quality restoration requires site-specific science and future forecasting.
Restore & Renew is a world-first. Genetic information from more than 200 plant species will be collected and sequenced to produce practical tools for ecological restoration practitioners.
For ecosystems to grow and thrive into the future, they need to be made up of species that are well adapted to the local geology, climate and soil. These ecosystems need to be genetically diverse and resilient to threats such as pest invasion, disease and climate change.
Restore & Renew provides a decision-support tool for those working in ecological restoration so they can choose species and seeds that will ensure long-term viability of restored vegetation. By combining genetic, environmental and ecological information from all the places a species grow, our science team will create detailed pictures of where a plant will happily grow and reproduce, now and in the future.