Our blueprint includes private funding and financial instruments such as biodiversity credits to generate income for land under our management and as part of packages in acquisition trade arrangements. We are lobbying government to support our initiative with funding through disaster mitigation, environmental and cultural preservation allocations and have had several productive meetings federally with the relevant departments.
Endorsements:
Bob Brown:
I wholeheartedly endorse the Community Land Acquisition Initiative Limited campaign to purchase the contentious but environmentally superb Wallum property. Having visited Wallum and seen its magnificent, ancient ecosystem and listened to the Bundjalung elders talking about their country and the need to protect it, I am happy to talk with any potential investor about saving the property through its purchase. THIS IS NATIONAL HERITAGE; it is no place for bulldozers.
Biodiversity Legacy:
Biodiversity Legacy endorses Community Land Acquisition Initiative Wallum's (CLAI) campaign to purchase the Wallum property. We connected with them in the initial stages of their establishment to share learnings, and they developed these to establish their own entity that is place-based, community led and is guided by First Nation sciences and values. We fully believe communities can come together to save important habitats such as the Wallum site for future generations to come.
Pledge Your Support
CLAI is taking promissory Pledges, which will be realised when the final acquisition negotiations are being conducted.
Pledges to CLAI can be made in the form of bank transfer, biodiversity or carbon credits. For foundations and organisations, options also exist for in-kind pledges or partnership status.
Pledge Text
Help us buy-back our precious heathland to preserve it for future generations.
We are seeking donors to help us buy threatened areas of high cultural and ecological value in our region.
Australia's natural heritage is being swallowed up, piece by piece. Government after government stands by while Indigenous cultural sites are destroyed, irreplaceable habitats are bulldozed, wildlife is driven to extinction, rivers sucked dry and native forests felled.
We don't believe it has to be this way. Our dream is to save our precious wild lands and Indigenous culture and we're asking for your help.
Our first target is to buy the precious coastal heathland, Wallum, in Brunswick Heads, one of the last remaining habitats of its kind, and home to 24 endangered species. The land will be held in a Conservation Land Trust for the Community, in perpetuity.
Wallum is subject to an Historic Development Approval for a housing estate. Unless we act now, this sensitive habitat will be permanently entombed in concrete and will be lost forever.
We have a strategy to save Wallum for future generations, to keep it as a community asset, and we are asking for your help to buy it. Its successful purchase would help protect many endangered species, including Byron Shire's last remaining group of Glossy Black Cockatoos.
Community Land Acquisition Initiative (CLAI) harnesses the power of biodiversity credit instruments, alongside generous community pledges, to acquire and protect environmentally sensitive areas.
Your contributions, whether money, or in the form of biodiversity credits, serve as the cornerstone of our mission.
To make a Pledge, please fill in the form below and email to info(at)clai.au
Download the Pledge Form PDF here
After submitting your Pledge you will receive an acknowledgment and updates, and we will advise you when the funds will be needed.
Donate
CLAI is currently taking donations to cover the administrative expenses of the acquisition.
CLAI is accepting Donations (as well as Pledges) towards the ultimate purchase of the land at Wallum.
CLAI is a Registered Charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
Presently CLAI does NOT have tax Deductible Gift Recipient status, but an application for DGR has been submitted and the outcome is pending.
Donations Account:
BSB: 722-744 Account Number 100153391
(DGR status applied for)
Receipts will be sent at the end of the Financial Year, unless requested prior.
Membership and Working Account:
BSB: 722-744 Account Number: 100153390
(Not tax deductible)
In the event that CLAI is unable to acquire Wallum, all Funds donated towards the purchase will be utilised to further the aims of CLAI as specified in the Constitution.
Excerpts from the Constitution:
3.1 The Company is established to protect First Nations Cultural Heritage and the natural environment and to advance education with respect to the above, in particular to:
3.1.1 identify and protect and maintain places of cultural significance in the Bundjalung Nation;
3.1.2 protect and enhance biodiversity and other threatened, at risk or endangered species in the Bundjalung Nation; and
3.1.3 act as a pioneering and scalable model for the protection and enhancement of other important habitat elsewhere in Australia.
3.2 The Company will pursue its purposes in a number of ways including by:
3.2.1 acquiring and caretaking land to further the Company's purposes;
3.2.2 developing and conducting public programs, including cultural, social and community education and research programs in connection with the Company's purposes and activities;
3.2.3 working to empower the local community (through First Nations' sciences, education, knowledge sharing and awareness raising) to identify strategically important parcels of land and provide an appropriate ownership structure for their in-perpetuity protection, contributing to the overall cultural and biodiversity values of the region.
25.2 If the Company is wound up and the assets of the Company are more than sufficient:
25.2.1 to pay all of the debts and liabilities of the Company; and
25.2.2 to pay the costs, charges and expenses of the winding up, the surplus assets must not be distributed to a Member or former Member unless that Member or former Member is a charity described in clause 25.3.
25.3 Instead, the surplus assets must be distributed to one or more charities:
25.3.1 with charitable purpose(s) similar to, or inclusive of, the Purposes; and
25.3.2 which prohibits the distribution of its assets to its members to at least the same extent as this Constitution.