The International Significance of the Natural Values of the Australian Alps

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The International Significance of the Natural Values of the Australian Alps AUSTRALIAN ALPS NATIONAL PARKS The International Significance of the Natural Values of the Australian Alps A report to the Australian Alps Liaison Committee J B Kirkpatrick May 1994 THE INTERNATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NATURAL VALUES OF THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS A report to the Australian Alps Liaison Committee J. B. KIRKPATRICK Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania October 1993 Contents Summary .........................................................................................................................4 Introduction...................................................................................................................... 5 Methods and criteria for assessing natural international significance .............................. 8 General principles ........................................................................................................ 8 Biosphere Reserves..................................................................................................... 8 The World Heritage Convention................................................................................... 9 The convention on biological diversity........................................................................ 14 Assessment of statements on international significance................................................ 15 General statements.................................................................................................... 15 Mountain environments.............................................................................................. 17 Geology...................................................................................................................... 18 Geomorphology ......................................................................................................... 20 Soils ...........................................................................................................................21 Hydrology................................................................................................................... 22 Vegetation.................................................................................................................. 22 Flora...........................................................................................................................24 Fauna......................................................................................................................... 25 Aesthetics .................................................................................................................. 27 The international distinctiveness of the Australian Alps................................................. 28 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 28 Climate and physiography.......................................................................................... 28 Geology, geomorphology and soils............................................................................ 29 Biota and vegetation .................................................................................................. 29 Aesthetics .................................................................................................................. 30 Analysis of the comparative international significance of six Australian World Heritage Areas and the Australian Alps ....................................................................................... 30 Synthesizing the relativities ........................................................................................... 39 Problems with Integrity .................................................................................................. 40 Current management ................................................................................................. 40 Past disturbance ........................................................................................................ 45 A comparison of the integrity of the Australian Alps and six recently listed World Heritage Areas in Australia.......................................................................................... 47 Region........................................................................................................................ 48 The case for World Heritage listing................................................................................ 48 Page 2 Criterion (i) ................................................................................................................. 49 Geological/geomorphological processes/features .................................................. 49 Biological evolution................................................................................................ 52 integrity................................................................................................................... 53 Criterion (ii) ................................................................................................................ 54 Dynamics of forests and woodlands....................................................................... 54 Dynamics of the treeline ........................................................................................ 56 The dynamics of alpine vegetation ......................................................................... 57 Integrity................................................................................................................... 58 Criterion (iii)................................................................................................................ 58 Exceptional natural beauty ..................................................................................... 59 Integrity................................................................................................................... 60 Criterion (iv) ............................................................................................................... 60 Threatened species................................................................................................ 62 Integrity................................................................................................................... 63 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 64 The Australian Alps and the Convention on Biological Diversity ................................ 64 The Australian Alps and the Biosphere Reserve concept .......................................... 64 The Australian Alps and World Heritage listing .......................................................... 64 Appendix 1..................................................................................................................... 66 The effect of inclusion of the other Alps and East Gippsland reserves on the case for World Heritage listing................................................................................................ 66 Appendix 2: ................................................................................................................ 69 Recognised plant communities in the Australian Alps and adjacent reserves. ....... 69 Appendix 3:.................................................................................................................... 78 Rare and threatened plant species by reserve........................................................... 78 Appendix 4..................................................................................................................... 81 Eucalypt species recorded from the parks in the MOU area...................................... 81 References .................................................................................................................... 83 Page 3 Summary 1. The Australian Alps have been argued to have international significance for many of their natural properties, including their geology, geomorphology, alpine ecosystems, the catena of eucalypt-dominated communities and their aesthetic qualities. Kosciusko National Park is already a Biosphere Reserve and is recognised internationally for the biological diversity of its plants. 2. The parks in the MOU area have undoubted international significance under the Convention for Biological Diversity and have qualities as a whole that should allow them to be readily recognised as the core of an enlarged Biosphere Reserve. 3. The Australian Alps have outstanding international significance on the criteria used in the World Heritage Convention in a variety of areas, most notably their outstanding representation of a highly diverse and unusual assemblage of communities dominated by eucalypts, their evidence of geomorphological, edaphic and ecological processes in the alpine and treeless subalpine zones, and their character as a globally unusual intraplate mountain range. 4. The outstanding natural attributes of the Australian Alps compare well with those that have been used as a basis for the recent successful nominations for World Heritage of other areas in Australia. 5. Unfortunately, the integrity of some parts of the Australian Alps, while being reasonable on an international scale, is comparatively poor compared to the same recent nominations, both as a result of past development and exotic species invasion, and as a result of continuing use of part of the area for purposes inconsistent with the maintenance of World Heritage
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