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Executive Summary

About the Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment

This report presents a landmark assessment of terrestrial biodiversity in Australia.

State and Territory agencies have worked closely with the Commonwealth through the independence of the National Land and Water Resources Audit to create an Australia-wide information set on terrestrial biodiversity.

Bioregions and subregions have been used as the biogeographic framework for the assessment as they represent broad landscape patterns resulting from the association between a range of factors including geology, climate and biota.

The report assesses the condition and trend of wetlands, riparian zones, threatened species and ecosystems and the processes that threaten various elements of biodiversity.

The first listing of threatened ecosystems in Australia has been produced. These have been related to the nationally agreed classification of Major Vegetation Subgroups of the National Vegetation Information System to facilitate conservation planning and Australia-wide comparisons.

Patterns of species richness and endemism for eucalypts and acacias have been examined as an example of the type of analysis required across a range of taxa for values that are not directly related to threatened species issues.

Detailed analysis has been undertaken on birds and mammals. These are key groups which can help us to understand the impact of land use activities on biodiversity.

The assessment examines biodiversity conservation opportunities in three complementary strategies:

• protected area consolidation;
• threatened species and ecosystem management; and
• integrated natural resource management.

Fourteen detailed biodiversity case studies have been carried out across the range of landscape health scenarios and these provide detailed insights into the specific mix of management responses needed across Australia.

The report concludes with recommendations to build on this important benchmark initiative as the basis for cost-effective investment in biodiversity conservation.

Conservation priorities and key management activities are listed for the attributes assessed. Further synthesis of this information will define geographic priorities for biodiversity conservation. This could include the identification of hot spots based on multiple criteria including richness, endemism, irreplacability, rarity and the concentration of threatened species and ecosystems. Development of policy and investment strategies is beyond the scope of this assessment and is a necessary follow-on activity by Australia's nature conservation agencies.

Underpinning this assessment, a wealth of information is available at the subregional and bioregional level on the Australian Natural Resources Atlas (www.environment.gov.au/atlas) to assist regional planning programs.

Key Findings

Wetlands and Riparian Zones

• The condition of nationally important wetlands is generally good (58% of subregions where assessments were made), particularly in northern Australia, with wetlands in several subregions assessed as near pristine. In southern Australia, many wetlands (28% of subregions assessed) require significant intervention to bring about their recovery.
• The trend in many nationally important wetlands is declining (38% of subregions assessed).
• Wetlands of regional significance are identified as a significant issue for nature conservation and the protection of ecological processes. Approximately 4700 regionally significant wetlands are recorded with some assessment of their condition, trends and threats.
• The condition of riparian zones is degraded (meaning recovery is unlikely in the medium term) across much of southern and eastern Australia (31% of subregions assessed) and an additional number require significant management intervention to achieve recovery (38% of subregions assessed).
• The trend of riparian zones is declining significantly across much of Australia (73% of subregions assessed).
• Information on the condition and trend of nationally important wetlands is unavailable for a number of subregions. This identifies the need for more information on these wetlands and monitoring to assess their change in condition and fine tune investment in management activities.

Threatened Ecosystems and Species

• 2891 threatened ecosystems and other ecological communities are identified across Australia.
• 94% of bioregions in Australia have one or more threatened ecosystems, with the greatest numbers in the highly cleared regions of southern and eastern Australia.
• Nearly half of the threatened ecosystems are eucalypt forest and woodlands with shrubby or grassy understorey that have been extensively cleared.
• The highest number of threatened species occurred in southern and eastern Australia, within the subregions from the southern highlands in Victoria and NSW and along the coast from Sydney to north of Brisbane.

Mammals and Birds

• Mammal extinction has been substantial within the last 200 years. Twenty-two Australian mammals are now extinct which represent a third of the world's recent extinctions: a further eight species now persist only on islands.
• There has been massive contraction in the distribution of mammals in arid and semi-arid parts of the continent, particularly the small to medium critical weight range species.
• The rapid decline and loss of many mammal species that respond rapidly to environmental stress provides an insight of what may be occurring with other groups of species over a longer time frame.
• For birds, though the extinction debt has yet to become apparent in many bioregions as they are more mobile and can persist longer, populations of some species have markedly reduced.
• Based on an analysis of 6 million records, 29 species over the past 20 years show significant decrease in agricultural areas where an increased proportion of the landscape has been cleared.
• Birds most affected are the grassland, woodland and ground nesting guilds.

Eucalypts and Acacias

• Subregions and bioregions were used to identify locations of endemic eucalypt and Acacia species and areas that are irreplaceable if these species are to be conserved. These locations extend the previously recognized centres of endemism and include landscapes that are under threat. Critical areas for protection include parts of the Murray-Darling Basin and south-west Western Australia.
• Endemism and irreplaceability are important conservation values to be taken into account in regional planning in addition to threatened species issues. These values should be assessed for other species groups.

Threatening Processses

• Vegetation clearing is the most significant threat to species and ecosystems in eastern Australia.
• Overgrazing, exotic weeds, feral animals and changed fire regimes are additional key threats to wetlands, riparian zones, threatened species and threatened ecosystems across much of Australia. These threats are widespread and pervasive.
• Implementing fire regimes and sustainable grazing management will provide major returns for biodiversity from investment as key protective management activities for much of Australia's rangelands.
• Fragmentation of remnants, increased salinity and firewood collection are threats to biodiversity in the highly modified regions of southern and eastern Australia.

Reserves

• As of June 2001, a total of 9.2% of the Australian landscape was protected for nature conservation on public and private lands.
• As a measure of the Comprehensiveness of the protected estate, 67% of Australia's ecosystem diversity was captured by national parks and formal reserves, with a further 5% included in other protected areas and covenants on private land.
• 42 bioregions (approximately half ) are a high priority for further reservation actions to ensure Australia has a Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative system of protected areas. An identified 1500 ecosystems that are poorly conserved and in many cases threatened should be the focus of further reservation.
• With 57 of the subregions (31%) in the intensive land use zone having less than 30% vegetation remaining and 88 subregions (48%) now showing little connectivity between remnants, the opportunity for developing a Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative protected area system is rapidly diminishing.

Biodiversity Conservation Across the Wider Landscape

• Management across all lands is essential to fully conserve biodiversity and to protect ecosystem function. Such management should concentrate on the priority threatening processes of the particular bioregion.
• The implementation of species recovery plans and ecosystem repair activities is inadequately resourced. It requires bioregionally specific packages that include incentives, duty of care and cross compliance measures linked to improved policy and legislative frameworks.
• The cost of species and ecosystem recovery in addition to the restoration of ecological processes will far outweigh the cost of managing many threatening processes.
• Considerable limitations, including a lack of regional capacity, exist for integrated natural resource management to deliver effective biodiversity conservation outcomes across a large part of Australia (47% of subregions).

Regional Biodiversity Management

• The detailed case studies of fourteen representative regions can inform biodiversity management in similar subregions across Australia.
• Based on these analyses, Australia needs to significantly increase investment in biodiversity management if key biodiversity objectives are to be met.
• In many highly disturbed bioregions there has been much planning but limited resources or commitment to implement the plans.
• An important part of biodiversity conservation is the cooperation of private land owners, but in many regions little capacity exists to address conservation issues.
• Effectiveness of various incentive mechanisms and other strategies in terms of actual biodiversity conservation outcomes should be more closely assessed.

Management Orientated Information

• This assessment has set a baseline for management orientated biodiversity information. Continued collection of data to fill gaps and establish trend in condition is essential.
• A number of jurisdictions have indicated the desire for the co-ordinated Audit biodiversity assessment to continue as it has provided regionally specific information relevant for State and regional management.
• Investment in systematic assessment and coordinated monitoring would provide information for more cost-effective investment in biodiversity conservation activities.

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