Border Ranges rainforest biodiversity management plan

Source: Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
"The Border Ranges Rainforest Biodiversity Management Plan constitutes the formal national regional recovery plan for threatened species and communities of the Border Ranges North and South (Queensland and New South Wales) Biodiversity Hotspot. The Plan considers the conservation requirements of rainforest and closely related species and communities in the Border Ranges region of NSW and Queensland, which is centred on the McPherson Ranges. It also addresses other species of conservation significance so as to manage the area’s biodiversity in a holistic and cost-effective manner."

Rapid recovery of damaged ecosystems

source: PLoS One, May 2009
"Recent reports on the state of the global environment provide evidence that humankind is inflicting great damage to the very ecosystems that support human livelihoods. The reports further predict that ecosystems will take centuries to recover from damages if they recover at all. Accordingly, there is despair that we are passing on a legacy of irreparable damage to future generations which is entirely inconsistent with principles of sustainability. We tested the prediction of irreparable harm using a synthesis of recovery times compiled from 240 independent studies reported in the scientific literature. We provide startling evidence that most ecosystems globally can, given human will, recover from very major perturbations on timescales of decades to half-centuries."

Woodchipping our water

source: ACF
"This report, Woodchipping Our Water, assesses how the logging of mature forests in the Goulburn River catchment threatens the enormous water production and carbon
sequestration potential of the region. The Goulburn River is one of Australia’s most important and degraded river systems. It supplies water to many regional towns and cities, including Shepparton, Bendigo and Ballarat. The Goulburn also supports Victoria’s major irrigation industries and its flows are vital to the health of the Murray River system. The report finds that if logging in the study area stopped tomorrow, an additional water yield of 3,807 gigalitres would be delivered into the Goulburn River over the next 100 years. This is more than six times Melbourne’s annual average water use and around 165 times the amount of water the City of Bendigo uses in a single year. The economic value of this water would be $1.68 billion."

Australia's strategy for the national reserve system 2009-2030

Source: Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
"The next 20 years will be a critical period for biodiversity conservation in Australia. The release of the National Reserve System Strategy 2009-2030 is an important step towards long-term protection of Australia's biodiversity. The strategy will fully guide the work on the National Reserve System in the years ahead. Each state and territory will now prepare a five-year plan to implement the strategy. These plans will support the strategy and reflect the regional differences in conserving biodiversity across the landscape and the conservation challenges they pose. Australia's National Reserve System is the cornerstone to protecting our country's biodiversity - it is our nation's most secure way of protecting native habitat."

Extending the sustainable management of kangaroos

Source: RIRDC
"Kangaroo harvesting is entrenched as an essential agricultural and environmental management tool in the arid grazing rangelands of Australia. A significant amount of research exists which confirms that harvesting kangaroos at the maximum sustainable yield of the population delivers a considerable benefit to agricultural enterprise margins. More-over doing so also aids in biodiversity maintenance. Overgrazing remains one of the biggest sustainability threats to the rangelands environment. Various state and territory governments regulations prevent commercial kangaroo harvesting in large sections of grazing lands in Australia. This project was commissioned to identify these restricted areas, the impediments involved and attempts to gain commercial access key identified regions."

Australia's deep-water reserve network: implications of false

Source: ICES: journal of marine science, vol.66,no.1 (2009)
Australia’s southeast network of deep-water marine reserves, declared in July 2007, was designed using a hierarchy that represented the distribution of marine biodiversity as a nested set of bioregions. In this hierarchy, geomorphic units, individual or aggregations of seabed geomorphic features, are the finest scale used in the design process. We evaluated the interaction between two hierarchical levels (depth and geomorphic features), using video survey data on seamounts and submarine canyons. False within-class homogeneity indicated that depth, size, complexity, configuration, and anthropogenic impact need to be added as modifiers to allow geomorphic features to act as surrogates for biodiversity distribution.A consequence of using unmodified geomorphic surrogates, and of not correctly nesting geomorphic features within depth, is the diminished recognition of the importance and comparative rarity of megafaunal biodiversity of the continental margin (,1500-m depths). We call this area the zone of importance, because it is where targeted marine impacts coincide with the greatest megafaunal biodiversity. Refining the geomorphic classification is desirable for future bio-diversity characterization, but an alternative approach is to define patterns in biodiversity and abiotic variables jointly, and to utilize finer scale information and provide classification that preserves the maximum information of both datasets."

Management principles and strategies to guide biodiversity conservation in private native forests

Source: RIRDC
"This report outlines a series of ecological principles for guidance on how forestry on private land might best achieve biodiversity conservation. A checklist of on-ground management strategies aimed at operationalising these principles is described. A discussion of the meaning of ecologically sustainable forest management, together with an outline of problems associated with biodiversity conservation “short-cuts” is given to provide suitable context to the description of the principles and associated checklist. The focus of this paper is on existing areas of native forest rather than exotic plantations (including eucalypt plantations) or farm forests that have been established on former grazing lands."

Australia's biodiversity conservation strategy 2010-2020: consultation draft

source: Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
"The new Australia's Biodiversity Conservation Strategy sets a national direction for biodiversity conservation over the next decade. The strategy outlines the activities that must begin straight away and those that are needed to effect longer-term change with a minimum 10-year outlook. All actions sit within a list of six ‘priorities for change’. These priorities—building ecosystem resilience, mainstreaming biodiversity, knowledge for all, getting results, involving Indigenous peoples and measuring success—reflect the essential changes that we must make urgently to achieve the strategy’s vision."

Introduced animals on Victorian islands: improving Australia's ability to protect its island habitats from feral animals

source: Arthur Rylah Institute
"The Australian Government has sought data on introduced fauna that are found on offshore islands. All Australian states and territories have contributed this data which will be used to implement a number of Threat Abatement Plans under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Victorian islands were identified from a variety of hard copy and electronic map sources. Records of fauna on islands were initially extracted from the Victorian Fauna Database. A literature search was conducted and further information was also sought from people with knowledge about specific islands. An electronic mapping tool was used to determine the size of islands where this information was required."

The operation of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999: first report

Source: Australia. Standing Committee on Environment,Communication and the Arts
The first report from the Standing Committee reviewing the EPBC Act 1999.

Defining and classifying ecosystem services for decision making

Source: Ecological economics, vol.68 (3)Jan.2009
"The concept of ecosystems services has become an important model for linking the functioning of ecosystems to human welfare. Understanding this link is critical for a wide-range of decision-making contexts. While there have been several attempts to come up with a classification scheme for ecosystem services, there has not been an agreed upon, meaningful and consistent definition for ecosystem services. In this paper we offer a definition of ecosystem services that is likely to be operational for ecosystem service research and several classification schemes. We argue that any attempt at classifying ecosystem services should be based on both the characteristics of the ecosystems of interest and a decision context for which the concept of ecosystem services is being mobilized. Because of this there is not one classification scheme that will be adequate for the many contexts in which ecosystem service research may be utilized. We discuss several examples of how classification schemes will be a function of both ecosystem and ecosystem service characteristics and the decision-making context."

Maximising woodland bird diversity in Brigalow Belt forests

Source: Land & Water Australia
"This project aimed to determine the interactions among fire, grazing and habitat structure, and their influence on noisy miner presence and woodland bird assemblages. Outcomes from the study will aid in development of land management principles and intuitive, user-friendly decision-support tools with the potential for application across the Brigalow Belt region."

Delivering on the promise of stewardship

Source: ACF
"The Australian Conservation Foundation commissioned this discussion paper to identify the role and potential contribution of stewardship payments in promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable natural resource management; to outline key design principles and implementation issues; and to explore possible tensions and synergies with other policy areas – particularly interactions with future policies addressing climate variability and drought, and the introduction of emissions trading."

A regional climate change decision framework for natural resource management

Source: SA Dept. of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation
"This report undertakes an assessment of natural resource management challenges that could arise due to climate change and creates an framework that seeks to provide guidance on how to respond to the risks of climate change. The report focuses on the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges (AMLR) region but the framework is designed to have a wider application for natural resource managers seeking to respond to the potential impacts of climate change. In compiling the report, six case studies were conducted to analyse the climate change vulnerabilities and adaptation responses that could be implemented for NRM issues including water, soil, biodiversity, coastal and land use management and planning."

Independent review of the EPBC Act 1999: discussion paper

Source: Independent Review of the EPBC Act
"This paper provides an explanation of the key provisions of the Act, a summary of how the provisions have been implemented since the Act came into force in 2000, and a selection of key questions regarding the operation of the Act to help stimulate discussion as part of the review."

Restoring landscapes with confidence

Source: Land & Water Australia
"In order to shed light on the key issue of landscape restoration, this project assessed the extent to which the research, tools and information that are currently available, are being used by regional natural resource management agencies to achieve on-ground outcomes. It examined how well the science that has been undertaken is embedded in day-to-day practical approaches, and investigated what makes esearch relevant, meaningful and able to be easily integrated."

Managing fire regimes in north Australian savannas: forum

Source:Tropical Savannas CRC
The forum held in Darwin in May featured a number of presentations covering the social and ethnographic history of the region; fire and carbon sequestration; fire and biodiversity; fire, fuels and greenhouse gas emissions; the policy environment and ecological thresholds associated with fire impact. Some powerpoints from the forum are available as PDFs.

Enhancing community engagement for natural resource management in the South east Queensland western catchment

Source: CSIRO
"This research project Effective Engagement for NRM in the SEQ Western Catchments was conducted by CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in partnership with South East Queensland Catchments (SEQC) in order to address the need to better understand how natural resource management (NRM) engagement needs to be undertaken effectively in peri-urbanising regions."

Flowering ecology of honey-producing flora in south-east Australia

Source: RIRDC
"Flowering ecology, which encompasses flowering patterns and the production of floral resources (i.e. nectar and pollen), is core to the survival of flora and fauna as well as many industries, including the Australian beekeeping industry. In particular, an understanding of long-term flowering patterns is critical to enable more effective resource management and to recognise conditions which trigger certain events, some of which can be devastating to honey production. Despite this, there is little research into long-term flowering ecology. This report presents a detailed dissertation on flowering ecology of Australian melliferous (honeyproducing) flora, as observed by highly experienced commercial apiarists. The research is the most detailed and long-term study of flowering ecology in melliferous species."

Applying competitive tenders for the provision of ecosystem services at the landscape level: a paper

Source: CSIRO
"Most tenders focus on ecosystem services on individual properties to maximise the total amount provided across the landscape. However, for many services it is not just the total quantity but their location in the landscape relative to other sites that matters. For example, biodiversity conservation is often much more effective if conserved sites are connected to other conserved areas to form a corridor or to increase suitable habitat area. Adapting competitive tenders to address ecosystem services at the landscape scale requires a good scientific understanding of the biophysical system. It also requires an auction mechanism which can promote coordination while maintaining the competition required to overcome information asymmetries. Iterated auctions, in which bidding is spread out over a number of rounds, with information provided between rounds on the location of other bids in the landscape, provides an approach to cost effectively deliver landscape scale ecosystem services outcomes. "