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Connectivity Conservation and the Great Eastern Ranges Corridor

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Connectivity Conservation and the Great Eastern Ranges Corridor Connectivity conservation and the Great Eastern Ranges corridor Prepared by Brendan Mackey, James Watson and Graeme L Worboys of ANU Enterprises Pty Ltd An independent report to the Interstate Agency Working Group (Alps to Atherton Connectivity Conservation Working Group) convened under the Environment Heritage and Protection Council/Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 978 1 74232 216 2 1. Environmental policy – Australia 2. Environmental science – Australia 3. Connectivity conservation – Australia 4. Environmental management – Australia I. Australia. NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water © State of NSW and Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water for and on behalf of the Alps to Atherton Interstate Agency Working Group This work is copyright. It may be reproduced for study, research or training purposes subject to the inclusion of an acknowledgment of the source and no commercial usage or sale. Reproduction for purposes other than those above requires written permission from the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW. Requests concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the: Director Landscapes and Ecosystems Conservation Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water PO Box A290 Sydney South NSW 1232, New South Wales, Australia Disclaimer The report was commissioned by the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW on behalf of the Interstate Agency Working Group (Alps to Atherton Connectivity Conservation Working Group). While members of the Interstate Agency Working Group have provided comments during the development of the report and every effort has been made to clarify issues raised and ensure the contents of this publication are factual, any remaining errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors. The Australian, state and territory governments and members of the Interstate Agency Working Group do not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the contents and shall not be liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of, or reliance on, the contents of this publication The views and the opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government or state and territories governments. This report has been prepared in good faith, exercising all due care and attention, but no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to the relevance, accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of this information in respect of any particular user’s circumstances. This document is subject to revision without notice. It is the responsibility of the reader to ensure that the latest version is being used. Citation Mackey B, Watson J and Worboys GL of ANU Enterprises Pty Ltd 2010, Connectivity conservation and the Great Eastern Ranges corridor, an independent report to the Interstate Agency Working Group (Alps to Atherton Connectivity Conservation Working Group) convened under the Environment Heritage and Protection Council/Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council. Acknowledgments The report has been independently peer reviewed and the authors have taken into account comments of the reviewers. Cover photos: main photo – M. Van Ewijk; top to bottom – D. Perryman, DECCW, DECCW. Published by: Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW 59–61 Goulburn Street, Sydney PO Box A290 Sydney South 1232 Ph: (02) 9995 5000 (switchboard) Ph: 131 555 (information & publications requests) Fax: (02) 9995 5999 TTY: (02) 9211 4723 Email: [email protected] Web: www.environment.nsw.gov.au/ger/index.htm DECCW 2010/59 March 2010 Printed on environmentally sustainable stock Contents Preface..............................................................................................................................................1 Executive summary .........................................................................................................................2 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................5 2 The scientific basis....................................................................................................................7 2.1 Background............................................................................................................................7 2.2 Conventional conservation thinking .......................................................................................8 2.3 Connectivity conservation thinking.......................................................................................10 2.4 An expanded understanding of ‘connectivity’.......................................................................11 2.5 Scale and connectivity .........................................................................................................13 2.6 Corridors and connectivity....................................................................................................15 2.7 Critiques of landscape corridor initiatives.............................................................................16 3 Connectivity conservation and the Great Eastern Ranges corridor ...................................19 3.1 Overview of the GER corridor biodiversity assets................................................................19 3.2 Defining landscape resilience ..............................................................................................23 3.3 Case study perspectives on landscape resilience ...............................................................25 3.4 Threatening processes.........................................................................................................27 3.5 Introduced species...............................................................................................................32 3.6 Threat mitigation and landscape resilience..........................................................................32 4 Benefits to species and ecosystem services........................................................................36 4.1 Indicative species.................................................................................................................36 4.2 Ecosystem services.............................................................................................................38 5 Connectivity conservation principles ....................................................................................41 5.1 Connectivity conservation principles ....................................................................................41 5.2 The GER connectivity corridor design and management.....................................................42 5.3 GER connectivity corridor conservation goals .....................................................................43 6 Conclusions .............................................................................................................................45 Acknowledgments .........................................................................................................................46 References and further reading....................................................................................................47 Appendix 1: Where is the GER corridor? ....................................................................................60 List of tables and figures Figures Figure 1 The proposed Great Eastern Ranges Corridor (the GER corridor), extending more than 2,800 kilometres from the Australian Alps near Melbourne to the Atherton Tablelands near Cairns and beyond in far north Queensland...........................................................................................................6 Figure 2 The gradient in habitat condition found across the GER corridor represented by three classes of habitat condition – intact, fragmented and cleared. ......................11 Figure 3 The geographical and temporal scales at which a selection of significant ecological and evolutionary processes occur...............................................................13 Figure 4 Some of the conceptual elements that comprise connectivity conservation spatial planning: core protected areas, the landscape-wide matrix management area, native vegetation that serves as ‘stepping stones’ and linear corridors of native habitat (adapted from Bennett 2004).................................................................18 Figure 5 Long-term annual rainfall for Australia. .........................................................................21 Figure 6 Long-term mean annual daily temperature for Australia. ..............................................21 Figure 7 Distribution of rainforest in Australia..............................................................................22 Figure 8 Distribution of open Eucalyptus forest in Australia. .......................................................22 Figure 9 Distribution of Australian population centres 2004–05. .................................................22 Figure 10 Regions where native vegetation clearing threatens ecosystems.................................30 Figure 11 A conceptual framework for GER corridor connectivity conservation management......43 Tables Table 1 Indicative biodiversity status
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