Protecting Australia’s rivers, wetlands and estuaries “…the river and lagoons abound with fish and fowl…” Explorer John Oxley’s observations of the Lachlan River (Oxley, 1820) “...nowadays the river has lost its charm. It’s no longer a sweet smelling place.” Lance Parker, Hillston commenting on Lachlan River (Roberts and Sainty, 1996) Protecting Australia’s rivers, wetlands and estuaries of high conservation value R.T. Kingsford, H. Dunn, D. Love, J. Nevill, J. Stein and J. Tait ii Published by: Department of the Environment and Heritage GPO Box 2182 Canberra ACT 2601 Telephone: (02) 6263 6000 Facsimile: (02) 6263 6099 Email: land&[email protected] Website: www.lwa.gov.au © Land & Water Australia Disclaimer: The information contained in this publication is intended for general use, to assist public knowledge and discussion, and to help improve the sustainable management of land, water and vegetation. The information should not be relied upon for the purpose of a particular matter. Legal advice should be obtained before any action or decision is taken on the basis of any material in this document. The Australian Government, Land & Water Australia and the authors do not assume liability of any kind whatsoever resulting from any person’s use or reliance upon the content of this document. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government, the Minister for the Environment and Heritage or Land & Water Australia. Publication data: Protecting Australia’s rivers, wetlands and estuaries of high conservation value, R.T. Kingsford, H. Dunn, D. Love, J. Nevill, J. Stein and J. Tait (2005) , Department of Environment and Heritage Australia, Canberra., Product Number PR050823. Authors: R.T. Kingsford H. Dunn School of Biological, Earth and University of Tasmania Environmental Sciences Private Bag 05 University of New South Wales Hobart, Tas. 7001 Sydney, NSW 2052 D. Love J. Nevill New South Wales Department Only One Planet Consulting Planning and 31 Coolabah Road Natural Resources Sandy Bay, Tas. 7005 Dubbo, NSW 2830 J. Stein J. Tait Australian National University ECONCERN Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies 56 McPhails Road Building 43 Huonbrook, NSW 2482 Canberra, ACT 0200 ISBN 1 920860 52 5 (print) 1 920860 53 3 (electronic) Editing and typesetting by Clarus Design Pty Ltd, December 2005 iii Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS X OBJECTIVES 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 2 1.1. AUSTRALIAN RIVERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY 2 1.1.1. Alteration of flows 3 1.1.2. Catchment disturbance 3 1.1.3. Pest species 3 1.2. AUSTRALIAN RIVERS: POTENTIAL FOR NATIONAL ACTION 4 1.2.1. Commitments 5 1.2.2. Context for protection of high- conservation-value rivers 5 1.3. WHY DO WE NEED A NATIONAL FRAMEWORK? 7 1.4. KEY CONCEPTS 8 1.5. CONSERVATION PLANNING AND PROTECTION 10 CHAPTER 2. A NATIONAL PROTECTIVE FRAMEWORK 15 2.1. PRINCIPLES OF A NATIONAL PROTECTIVE FRAMEWORK 15 2.2. DEVELOPING A NATIONAL APPROACH 15 2.3. ELEMENTS OF A NATIONAL PROTECTIVE FRAMEWORK 15 2.4. NATIONALLY CONSISTENT RIVER INFORMATION 15 2.4.1. Spatial framework 16 2.4.2. Classification system 21 2.4.3. Evaluation system 26 CHAPTER 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF A NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF RIVERS 29 3.1. IDENTIFYING RIVERS OF HIGH CONSERVATION VALUE 29 3.1.1. Selection of attributes 29 3.1.2. How it could work 30 3.1.3. Case study—the Fitzroy River Basin 31 3.2. NATIONAL ASSESSMENT 31 3.2.1. ‘Comprehensive, adequate and representative’ (CAR) principles 31 3.2.2. Categorisation 32 3.2.3. Criterion-based approaches 32 3.2.4. Scoring and ranking 33 3.2.5. Deciding on an approach 33 CHAPTER 4. PROTECTION SCHEME 35 4.1. POTENTIAL FOR AN AUSTRALIAN HERITAGE RIVERS SYSTEM 35 4.1.1. Models for basin-wide protection of rivers 39 4.1.2. Parts of an Australian Heritage Rivers system 39 4.2. PROTECTION IN A NATIONAL, STATE, REGIONAL OR LOCAL CONTEXT: APPLICATION OF CURRENT LEGISLATIVE AND POLICY TOOLS 39 4.2.1. Environmental flow management 40 4.2.2. Protected areas 40 4.2.3. Natural resource planning and management 41 4.2.4. Incentives 41 iv CHAPTER 5. OPERATIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS — RECOMMENDATIONS 42 5.1. MAJOR RECOMMENDATION 42 5.2. SPATIAL FRAMEWORK 42 5.3. EVALUATION AND CLASSIFICATION 42 5.4. PROPOSED AUSTRALIAN HERITAGE RIVERS SYSTEM 43 5.5. PROTECTING NATIONALLY IMPORTANT RIVERS AND THEIR DEPENDENT ECOSYSTEMS USING CURRENT MECHANISMS 43 5.5.1. Environmental flow management 43 5.5.2. Protected areas 43 5.5.3. Natural resource planning and management 44 5.5.4. Incentives 44 REFERENCES 45 APPENDICES 59 APPENDIX A. INFORMATION FOR THE SPATIAL FRAMEWORK 60 APPENDIX B. RIVER CLASSIFICATION—A REVIEW 62 APPENDIX C. PROTECTION TOOLS FOR AUSTRALIA’S HIGH CONSERVATION VALUE RIVERS 71 APPENDIX D. INTERNATIONAL SYSTEMS FOR THE PROTECTION OF HERITAGE OR WILD RIVERS 75 APPENDIX E. WILD AND HERITAGE RIVERS LEGISLATION IN AUSTRALIA 80 APPENDIX F. JURISDICTIONAL WORKSHOPS 83 APPENDIX G. FEEDBACK FROM A NATIONAL FORUM 88 v user of water. In 2004, CoAG agreed to the National Water Initiative (NWI), which will Executive chart the future responsibilities and progress towards sustainable management of the nation’s rivers and aquifers. Provisions in the summary associated intergovernmental agreement commit most governments to identify, protect and manage high-conservation-value rivers and aquifers and their dependent ecosystems. To effect protection of high-conservation- value rivers and their dependent ecosystems, Australia has a rich variety of different rivers, national conservation goals are essential. They wetlands and estuaries that support a may be used also to determine short-term and significant amount of its biodiversity and specific goals developed from a national vision industry. Important social values of Australia’s statement for rivers. This recognises that it is Indigenous and European culture are also not possible to single out high-conservation- intimately linked to the integrity of our rivers. value rivers or their dependent ecosystems and Despite this, compared with terrestrial expect to protect only these and achieve conservation (e.g. national parks and reserves, conservation of their values. River and regional forest agreements), there has conservation requires a network approach that generally been a lessor focus on conservation recognises that many processes and organisms of these ecosystems in Australia. may use all parts of rivers and even different This report presents a conceptual framework rivers during their lives. A protection for the protection of riversd, river reaches framework focused on only high-conservation- andestuaries of high conservation value. It value rivers will not work. was developed in conjunction with State and Territory agenciesduring 2003 and 2004 and provides an important foundation for Rivers and dependent ecosystems with developing future approaches to the nationally high conservation values are a conservation of these key areas. subset of the country’s aquatic ecosystems. Conservation value is a relative measure, Many of Australia’s rivers, wetlands and established through a comparison of all rivers estuaries are affected by river regulation, and dependent ecosystems. This discussion catchment disturbance and pest species, and paper focuses on ecological conservation opportunities to effectively conserve riverine values, but recognises that rivers also have biodiversity and landscapes are limited.. There considerable cultural, economic and ecosystem are opportunities to protect Australia’s most service values. important aquatic areas so that future generations do not have to pay the high costs There are two key questions for of rehabilitation (e.g. as has happened for the this framework. River Murray). This may begin with a comprehensive national framework that • What rivers, floodplains, wetlands and identifies and protects rivers, wetlands and estuaries are of high conservation value? estuaries that have high, national conservation value. States and Territories are primarily • How can these be protected? responsible for their protection, but a national framework could support consistent identification and strategic investment in the protection of nationally important aquatic Elements of a national framework ecosystems. A national framework of river protection could be All Australian governments have invested in built around three main elements: programs and projects aimed at protecting 1 nationally consistent collection of information rivers, wetlands and estuaries. There is on rivers, wetlands and estuaries, which will national recognition of the importance of this entail agreement on spatial scale and issue across all jurisdictions. In 1994, the classification and evaluation systems for Council of Australian Governments (CoAG) identification of rivers and dependent agreed that the environment was a legitimate vi ecosystems of high conservation value Spatial framework 2 protection schemes that operate at different An agreed spatial framework is essential for scales such as: undertaking national assessments. – a ‘whole-of-river’ approach that could include establishment of an ‘Australian Recommendations Heritage Rivers’ system a. Use current drainage divisions, river basins – protection of high-conservation-value rivers, and river segments for initial implementation river segments and dependent ecosystems of this framework. These map layers, and the (floodplains, wetlands, estuaries) in a sub-catchments and catchments they support, national, State,