The Great Eastern Ranges extends from southern Victoria to the north of Cairns in Queensland, Australia. It encompasses the Great Dividing Range and the Great Escarpment – two ancient mountains, sometimes undulating an occasional tableland landscapes situated on the eastern side of the continent.
The Great Eastern Ranges (GER) is a large landscape connectivity conservation initiative established in 2007. It was created to address habitat degradation, loss, and fragmentation across eastern Australia.
Although parts of the Great Eastern Ranges are well protected by national parks and reserves, much of the rich biodiversity along the ranges is found on private and public lands outside of protected areas. Research shows that the conventional approach of prioritizing the conservation of isolated patches of habitat in national parks is not sufficient by itself to ensure the long-term survival and adaptability of wildlife populations and the resilience and integrity of ecosystems – connectivity (the degree to which landscapes and seascapes allow species to move freely and ecological processes to function unimpeded) between landscapes and natural systems is critical.
GER takes a community-led approach to conservation. Through the organization's regionally based partnerships, GER engages landholders and local communities in projects that protect, connect and regenerate priority landscapes and ecosystems. These landscapes have been selected through spatial analysis on the basis of their containing important habitat connections and climate refugia for wildlife, and the high diversity of plants and animals that occur within them.