SYDNEY, Feb 18 (Reuters) - U.S. aluminium company Alcoa ( AA )

will pay A$55 million ($39 million) to remediate native

forest it ​illegally cleared in Western Australia ‌in order to

mine bauxite, Australia's environment ministry said on

Wednesday.

The ⁠payment, secured through legally enforceable

undertakings, relates to ⁠land clearing between 2019 and ‌2025 of

habitat ‌in the Northern Jarrah Forest, south of Perth.

The money will ​go towards conservation-focused initiatives

including ‌ecological offsets, programmes to preserve endangered

black cockatoos that nest in the ​jarrah trees, and improving ​the

management ‌of invasive species.

Alcoa ( AA ) has mined bauxite, the raw material for aluminium, in

Western Australia since ⁠the 1960s and has cleared around ⁠28,000

hectares (69,000 acres) of the state's native jarrah forest. It

has faced growing opposition to its land clearing and

environmental impact in recent years.

A ⁠proposal ‌to clear a further 11,500 hectares ‌of jarrah

forest attracted a record 59,000 submissions ⁠from the public to

the state's environment watchdog last year.

The government said the unlawful clearing of just under

2,100 hectares between 2019 and 2025 was done without seeking

government approvals. It called the A$55 ​million payment

"unprecedented" and said it was the largest of its kind.

($1 = 1.4152 Australian dollars)