Description
The rainforest area, named after Richard Daintree, is loosely defined as the area between the Mossman Gorge and the Bloomfield River. The name is believed to have come about as a result of conservationists, who during the building of a coastal road linking the Daintree area near Cape Tribulation to Cooktown (the Bloomfield Road) in the early 1980s proposed the 'Greater Daintree National Park' which would have encompassed all of the forests in the area, including the Cape Tribulation and Daintree National Parks. Recent extensions to the Daintree National Park have realised this.
The area includes the Daintree National Park, some areas of State Forest, and some privately owned land, including a residential community of upwards of 500 people. Some of the privately owned land north of the Alexandra Range is being progressively purchased for conservation purposes under a $15 million government scheme involving equal contributions from the municipal (Cairns Regional Council, which includes the former Douglas Shire council), State (Queensland) and Australian Federal governments. As of May 2011,73% of the properties earmarked for buyback or compensation had been secured. These 'buyback' areas of tropical rainforest included 215 blocks of land purchased by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, and 13 purchased by private conservation agencies.
The Daintree Rainforest contains 30% of the frog, reptile and marsupial species in Australia, and 65% of Australia's bat and butterfly species. 18% of bird species in the country can be found in this area. There are also over 12,000 species of insects. All of this diversity is contained within an area that takes up 0.1% of the landmass of Australia. Part of the forest is protected by the Daintree National Park and drained by the Daintree River. The roads north of the river wind through areas of lush forest, and have been designed to minimize impacts on this ancient ecosystem.
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