Conservation Advice (Incorporating Listing Advice) for Illawarra– Shoalhaven Subtropical Rainforest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion 1
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Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) (s266B) Conservation Advice (incorporating listing advice) for Illawarra– Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion 1. The Threatened Species Scientific Committee (the Committee) was set up under the EPBC Act to give advice to the Minister for the Environment (the Minister) in relation to the listing and conservation of threatened ecological communities, including under sections 189, 194N and 266B of the EPBC Act. 2. The Committee conducted a listing assessment following the ecological community being placed on the 2017 Finalised Priority Assessment List. 3. The Committee provided its advice on the Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion ecological community to the Minister in 2019. The Committee recommended that: o the ecological community merits listing as Critically Endangered; and o a recovery plan is not required for the ecological community at this time. 3. A draft conservation advice for this ecological community was made available for expert and public comment for a minimum of 30 business days. The Committee and Minister had regard to all public and expert comment that is relevant to the consideration of the ecological community for listing. 4. In 2019 the Minister accepted the Committee’s advice, adopted this document as the approved conservation advice and agreed no recovery plan is required at this time. The Minister amended the list of threatened ecological communities under Section 184 of the EPBC Act to include Illawarra– Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion ecological community in the critically endangered category. 5. At the time of this advice, this ecological community corresponds closely with two threatened ecological communities that are listed under the New South Wales Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016: the ‘Illawarra Subtropical Rainforest in the Sydney Basin Bioregion’ and ‘Milton Ulladulla Subtropical Rainforest in the Sydney Basin Bioregion’. Further details on the relationships with these two state listed ecological communities are in Section 3.5.2 of this Conservation Advice. Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion. Berkeley Hills. Photo credits: Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. Approved Conservation Advice - Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest CONTENTS 1. CONSERVATION OBJECTIVE ....................................................................................... 4 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY AND THE AREA IT INHABITS ................................................................................................................................. 4 2.1 Name of the ecological community ............................................................................. 5 2.2 Location and physical environment ............................................................................. 5 2.3 Vegetation structure and composition ......................................................................... 8 2.4 Fauna ......................................................................................................................... 10 3. IDENTIFYING AREAS OF THE ILLAWARRA–SHOALHAVEN SUBTROPICAL RAINFOREST PROTECTED UNDER NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW ............... 13 3.1 Step 1 – Key diagnostic characteristics and Contra-indicators ................................. 14 3.2 Step 2 – Determine patch condition .......................................................................... 17 3.3 Further information to assist in determining importance and avoiding significant impacts .................................................................................................................................. 22 3.4 Relationship to other vegetation classification systems ............................................ 24 3.5 Existing protection ..................................................................................................... 25 4. SUMMARY OF KEY THREATS.................................................................................... 28 4.1 Key Threatening Processes ........................................................................................ 29 5. RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE THREATENED SPECIES SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE .......................................................................................................................... 30 5.1 Summary of eligibility for listing against the EPBC Act criteria .............................. 30 5.2 Recommendation on whether to have a recovery plan .............................................. 31 6. PRIORITY RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION ACTIONS ...................................... 32 6.1 Conservation Objective ............................................................................................. 32 6.2 Principles and standards ............................................................................................ 32 6.3 Priority actions ........................................................................................................... 33 6.4 Existing plans relevant to the ecological community ................................................ 40 Other Resources include: ......................................................................................................... 42 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 42 APPENDIX A: SPECIES LISTS ............................................................................................. 49 APPENDIX B: DESCRIPTION OF KEY THREATS ............................................................ 63 Clearance of native vegetation and impacts associated with fragmentation ........................ 63 Impacts from introduced species (weeds and feral animals) ................................................ 65 Altered hydrology ................................................................................................................. 67 Nutrient enrichment and chemical drift ................................................................................ 68 Altered fire regimes .............................................................................................................. 68 Disease and dieback (pathogens) .......................................................................................... 69 Other disturbances to patches ............................................................................................... 69 Climate change ..................................................................................................................... 70 APPENDIX C: ELIGIBILITY FOR LISTING AGAINST THE EPBC ACT CRITERIA ..... 72 Criterion 1 – Decline in geographic distribution .................................................................. 72 Criterion 2 – Small geographic distribution coupled with demonstrable threat ................... 73 Criterion 3 – Loss or decline of functionally important species ........................................... 76 Criterion 4 – Reduction in community integrity .................................................................. 77 Criterion 5 – Rate of continuing detrimental change ........................................................... 81 Criterion 6 – Quantitative analysis showing probability of extinction ................................. 82 Overall conclusion ................................................................................................................ 82 APPENDIX D: FURTHER INFORMATION ON RELATED VEGETATION UNITS ........ 83 NSW Vegetation Units that correspond to the ecological community ................................. 83 Similar or related Vegetation Units (or intergrades) ............................................................ 83 Page 2 of 85 Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest – Approved Conservation Advice TABLES Table 1: Condition thresholds for the Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest ............... 19 Table 2: Threatened flora and fauna that may be found in the ecological community. ........... 28 Table 3: Relevant national and state-listed Key Threatening Processes .................................. 29 Table A1: Flora of the Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest. ...................................... 49 Table A2: Fauna of the Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest – Birds. ........................ 55 Table A3: Fauna of the Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest – Mammals. ................. 58 Table A4: Fauna of the Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest – Amphibians. ............. 60 Table A5: Fauna of the Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest – Reptiles. ................... 61 Table A6: Fauna of the Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest – Invertebrates. ............ 62 Table C1: Extent and decline estimates ................................................................................... 73 Table C2: Patch sizes distribution for the ecological community ............................................ 74 Page 3 of 85 Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest – Approved Conservation Advice 1. CONSERVATION OBJECTIVE To prevent further loss and degradation of the Illawarra–Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion ecological community and help recover its biodiversity, function and extent, by protecting it from significant impacts as a Matter of National Environmental Significance under national