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Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

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  • Management

Terrestrial biodiversity and other Audit assessments

The Australian Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment is one of the series of natural resource assessment and reporting initiatives fostered under the National Land and Water Resources Audit. All other Audit assessments have implications for biodiversity conservation.

Management of water is critical to the management of biodiversity.

• The status of Australia's surface and groundwater resources, including their extent, use, quality and sustainability, is detailed in the Audit's report Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000.

Dryland salinity is a land degradation issue that has impact on many agricultural regions of Australia and is a major cause of impacts to land, water and biological resources.

• Assessment of the likely hazard of dryland salinity based on salt stores and an understanding of the water balance and projected groundwater levels is provided in the Audit report Australian Dryland Salinity Assessment 2000.

The development of a readily accessible and standardised database of native vegetation is essential to the management of Australia's biodiversity and provides a basis for further development of biodiversity data sets.

• The Audit's National Vegetation Information System provides a hierarchy of vegetation information from structural formations to communities and species. The extent and fragmentation of native vegetation is assessed in Australian Native Vegetation Assessment 2001.

Rangelands occupy three quarters of Australia. These are key natural environments and protective management is essential to halt the decline in condition and biodiversity values. Relatively small investment may result in substantial conservation gains.

• The Audit has developed an Australia-wide monitoring framework to assess the condition and trend of Australia's rangelands available in Tracking Changes—Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information System 2001.

Application of best management practice systems are gaining impetus as Australian agriculture develops its export and domestic product position based on a combined ethos of food quality, efficient production and sustainable resource use.

• Information on nutrient and sediment loads resulting from land use, mobilised through rivers and estuaries, together with best practice activities in key agricultural industries are detailed in the Audit's report Australian Agriculture Assessment 2001.

Natural resource management is multidisciplinary and must take account of not only biophysical conditions but also social and economic constraints and opportunities. Australia has an opportunity to improve the condition of its biodiversity and at the same time enhance economic and social outcomes.

• The Audit has collated resource accounting information on rural land use, the benefits of agriculture production to the Australian economy, costs resulting from land degradation and the opportunities that arise from improved management. This analysis is presented in Australians and Natural Resource Management 2002.

Rivers and estuaries are key common property resources that receive the cumulative impact of our land use activities. The Audit's rivers and estuaries assessments complement this assessment by identifying unmodified river reaches and near pristine estuaries as the basis for an Australia-wide program of nature conservation for these resources.

• Australian Catchment, River and Estuary Assessment 2002 assesses aggregate impacts of natural resource use on catchment, river and estuary condition and identifies priority management challenges to maintain or repair these natural assets.

To underpin further assessments and map trends in resource condition, Australia needs to adopt comparable approaches to data collection and management, assessment and information provision.

The results of monitoring should inform land use management and assess the returns on investment from major programs. This will require an upgrading and improved accessibility of management-orientated natural resource information. This biodiversity assessment has established a core set of biodiversity elements for monitoring across Australia that will directly inform regional planning and strategic investment in conservation.

• Overall natural resource data management maintenance and information provision is reported as part of the Australian Natural Resources Information 2002 report and the proposed monitoring system for Australia's natural resources detailed within the Audit's final report, Australia's Natural Resources 1997-2002 and Beyond.

Integration through the Atlas

Access to information on natural resources provides opportunities for increased awareness and informed debate. This has been improved through internet and database technology.

The web-based Australian Natural Resources Atlas (Atlas) presents Audit products from Australia-wide to regional scales.

The Atlas provides information to aid decisionmaking across all aspects of natural resource management on the topics of agriculture, coasts, dryland salinity, irrigation, land, natural resource economics, people, rangelands, soils, vegetation and biodiversity, and water. The Atlas is organised by geographic region (national, State, ecological) and by information topic.

The Data Library supports the Atlas with links to Commonwealth, State and Territory data management systems and atlases. The database and associated metadata that underpins the Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment is available from the Data Library.

The terrestrial biodiversity topic of the Australian Natural Resources Atlas has information at Australia-wide, bioregional and subregional levels (Figure i). Fourteen detailed case studies provide conservation strategy options for subregions of varying levels of landscape stress.

More details about methods used in the Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment are available in separate reports available on the Atlas. These include:

Garnett, S.T., Crowley, G.M. and Barrett, G. 2002. Analysis of Birds for the Australian Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment 2002. A report to the National Land and Water Resources Audit, Canberra.

McKenzie, N.L. and Burbidge, A.A. 2002, Australian Mammal Audit. A report to the National Land and Water Resources Audit, Canberra.

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