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Kimberley Islands

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Kimberley Islands CONSERVATION COMMISSION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA STATUS PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT: BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION ON WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ISLANDS PHASE II – KIMBERLEY ISLANDS FINAL REPORT CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. 2 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Background ....................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Objectives .......................................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Methods ............................................................................................................................. 5 OBJECTIVES 1, 2 AND 3 .............................................................................................................. 5 2. KIMBERLEY ISLANDS ........................................................................................................ 5 2.1 Number and size distribution of Kimberley islands .......................................................... 5 2.2 Archipelagos and island groups ...................................................................................... 11 2.3 Assessment of knowledge and status of biodiversity conservation on Kimberley islands ............................................................................................................................................... 11 3. CONTEXT ............................................................................................................................ 12 3.1 Biodiversity values of Kimberley islands ....................................................................... 12 3.2 Threats to Kimberley island biodiversity ........................................................................ 16 3.3 Context – Findings ......................................................................................................... 19 3.4 Context – Recommendations ......................................................................................... 19 4. PLANNING .......................................................................................................................... 20 4.1 Kimberley islands vested in the Commission ................................................................. 20 4.2 Islands not vested in the Commission ............................................................................. 21 4.3 Progress relating to the recommendations in the document ‘Nature Conservation Reserves in the Kimberley Western Australia’ ..................................................................... 21 4.4 Inclusion of Kimberley islands in the State’s protected area system .............................. 23 4.5 Planning Findings ............................................................................................................ 27 4.6 Planning Recommendations ............................................................................................ 27 5. INPUTS ................................................................................................................................. 27 5.1 Inputs Findings ................................................................................................................ 28 5.2 Inputs Recommendations ................................................................................................ 28 6. MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ............................................................................................... 28 6.1 Management System Findings ........................................................................................ 28 6.2 Management System Recommendations ........................................................................ 29 7. OUTPUTS ............................................................................................................................. 29 8. OUTCOMES ......................................................................................................................... 29 8.1 Outcomes Findings .......................................................................................................... 29 8.2 Outcomes Recommendations .......................................................................................... 29 OBJECTIVE 4 ............................................................................................................................... 30 9. CONSULTATION ................................................................................................................ 30 9.1 Mechanisms for Joint Management ................................................................................ 30 9.2 Kimberley Science and Conservation Strategy ............................................................... 30 9.3 Implementing recommendations ..................................................................................... 31 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... 32 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 32 APPENDIX 1. Complete list of Kimberley islands .................................................................. 34 APPENDIX 2. Methods used in developing a list of Kimberley islands .................................. 89 APPENDIX 3. Archipelagos and major island groups in the Kimberley ................................. 91 APPENDIX 4. Kimberley islands annotated bibliography and notes on unpublished data ..... 94 APPENDIX 5. Kevin Coate’s Kimberley islands bird sightings from 1962 .......................... 100 APPENDIX 6. DEC’s response to report recommendations…………………………………123 ii TABLES 1. Kimberley islands by size category ........................................................................................... 11 2. Priority flora records from Kimberley islands .......................................................................... 13 3. Listed threatened and priority fauna occurring on Kimberley islands ...................................... 14 4. Known turtle breeding rookeries on Kimberley islands ............................................................ 14 5. Known seabird breeding colonies on Kimberley islands .......................................................... 15 6. Status of reservation recommendations made in ‘Nature Conservation Reserves in the Kimberley Western Australia’ (1991) ................................................................................. 22 7. Kimberley islands of more than 200 ha, plus smaller islands with known biodiversity values ......................................................................................................................... 24 FIGURES 1. Trend in Annual Total Rainfall in Australia, 1950-2007 ........................................................... 18 2. Trend in Mean Temperature in Australia, 1950-2007 ................................................................ 18 MAPS 1. Kimberley coast showing archipelagos and location of detailed maps ........................................ 6 2. Buccaneer Archipelago and adjacent islands ............................................................................... 7 3. Islands in Doubtful Bay and in the southern Bonaparte Archipelago .......................................... 8 4. Islands in Admiralty Gulf, Vansittart Bay, Napier Broome Bay and adjacent areas ................... 9 5. Islands in Cambridge Gulf and adjacent areas ........................................................................... 10 iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The 2633 Kimberley islands comprise the least impacted part of one of the world’s last and largest tropical wilderness areas—the north Kimberley of Western Australia—and are attracting heightened world-wide interest and rapidly increasing tourism. Their varied, often spectacular, landscapes and ecosystems, which include sandstone and volcanic escarpments, rainforest patches, mangrove forests, freshwater creeks and swamps, savannah woodland and pristine beaches, harbour a wide variety of animals and plants, including some that occur nowhere else and some that are threatened with extinction on the mainland. South of the Kimberley, where most islands are conservation reserves vested in the Conservation Commission of Western Australia, inclusion of islands in the State’s protected area system has resulted in very effective biodiversity conservation outcomes. The Kimberley lies in stark contrast: of the 2633 Kimberley islands (53% of Western Australian islands of >1000 ha and 68% of WA islands of >20 ha), only 12 small islands are reserved for conservation and some of these do not have the highest level of protection. As is the case in the southern two thirds of the State, Kimberley islands are largely unaffected by the key threatened processes that are causing the decline of ecosystems and species on the Australian mainland; threats such as land clearing, introduced animals and plants, changed fire regimes, urban development and pollution. Islands in the Kimberley have high cultural and traditional values to local Aboriginal people and most are under Native Title claim. Future protection of the biodiversity of Kimberley islands must take account of the aspirations and rights of local Aboriginal people. Their future
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