SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA—Emirates Hotels & Resorts has announced the start of a major habitat regeneration project at its first luxury Australian conservation resort, Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa. The first step in the long-term conservation program commenced with the planting of more than 1,000 indigenous trees. The reforestation project aims to regenerate ecologically sensitive areas within Emirates’ Wolgan Valley Reserve and is part of Emirates Hotels and Resorts’ carbon offsetting initiative and its commitment to the protection of biodiversity.
The first resort to be developed by Emirates Hotels & Resorts outside the United Arab Emirates, Wolgan Valley includes an extensive conservation program that will reintroduce indigenous species to the 4,000-acre site.
International volunteers and local residents gathered to begin planting more than 1,000 native trees indigenous to the area at a former cattle ranch, which will become the Wollemi Grove. The Wollemi Grove will feature one of the world’s rarest trees, the Wollemi Pine. Previously known only through fossil records, the Wollemi Pine was rediscovered in 1994, deep within the neighboring Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
Emirates’ conservation team has worked closely with David Noble, a New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife officer, who discovered the Wollemi Pine, to create the Wollemi Grove. A range of other native species will be planted alongside the Wollemi Pine to ensure a new and stable habitat, which will attract and support a number of local wildlife species previously under pressure.
An Area Worth Preserving
“Having recently completed the first phase of our conservation program, with the removal of invasive noxious plants, weeds and non-indigenous flora, we can now enter the positive phases of the program with the planting over a thousand native trees,” says Tony Williams, senior vice president of Emirates Hotels & Resorts. “The Wolgan Valley is an important site; not only is it extraordinarily beautiful, but it is also environmentally important from a conservation point of view.”
“The Wolgan Valley’s position along the Great Australian Divide, at the heart of a World Heritage Area, has both historic and conservation significance for Australia,” Williams added. “It also continues Emirates Hotels & Resorts’ philosophy of sustainable development and threatened species protection. This location and the resort itself will provide future guests and visitors with an unparalleled experience of Australia’s wildlife, history and aboriginal heritage—all of which we have committed to preserve.”
The Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa is Australia’s first luxury conservation resort. Nestled deep in the heart of the Wolgan Valley beneath sandstone escarpments, only 2 percent of the 4,000-acre site will be developed as part of the resort. The remainder is dedicated to conservation, and forms a wildlife reserve.
Emirates Hotels & Resorts, owner of the Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa, has become a recognized world leader in blending intimate and personalized luxury resort facilities with important conservation work and environmentally sensitive design. The concept for the Wolgan Valley resort is modeled on Emirates’ highly acclaimed and award winning Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa in Dubai.
Due to open in late 2009, the Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa will include 40 individual villas, each with its own pool, world-class spa facilities and the very best locally sourced food and wines.
Go to Emirates Hotels & Resorts.
