Growing awareness for Reef protection
AN INITIATIVE designed to better understand growers and recognise them for their ongoing efforts to protect the Reef, has been launched in Cairns.
Funded by the Queensland Government’s Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Project Cane Changer aims to increase adoption of best management farming practices.
The program was first launched in March in Innisfail, with more than 160 growers across the wet tropics now signed up to the project.
Canegrowers Cairns chairman Stephen Calcagno said the launch in Cairns was a great success.
“We believe it is important to demonstrate the positive work the industry has already done and help accelerate further change into the future,” he said.
“Through the project we hope to build community confidence and show that the cane industry continues to evolve and has a positive attitude towards the Reef, the environment and a sustainable future.”
Project leader John Pickering said the session was an excellent opportunity for growers to share their story.
He said growers were able to provide technical data about their farming practices to demonstrate the many positive changes that growers in the Cairns region have been making over the years, especially in regard to improving water quality running into the Great Barrier Reef.
Project Cane Changer will run through to the end of next year, driven by the Queensland Canegrowers Organisation and done in partnership with human behaviour experts Behaviour Innovation.