The Science, Our Private Land Holders, Incentives and Connectivity Published by the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability Melbourne, Victoria, 2013

Foundation Paper | TWO

Land AND Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity Published by the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability Melbourne, Victoria, 2013

©The State of Victoria, Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability 2013 This publication is copyright. No part may be reproduced by any process except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968.

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Authorised by the Victorian Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, 16/570 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000

ISBN 978-1-921147-21-0

For further information contact the office of the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, phone +61 3 8636 2197 or visit www.ces.vic.gov.au

Disclaimer This report may be of assistance to you and every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is correct. The Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability does not guarantee that the report is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. ConTENTS

Introduction 08

Chapter ONE - THE ‘PATTERN’ THAT CONNECTS – OUR SHARED RESPONSIBILITY 16 REDUCED RAINFALL 1.1BUSHFIRES HEATWAVES a varietyHIGHER AVERAGE of TEMPERATURES interventionsINTENSE STORMS HIGHER CO2 CONCENTRATIONS 16 SEA LEVEL RISE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE

1.2 Incentives Changes to 19 phenology altering Fewer numbers Loss of interactions between and less frequent alpine ecosystems species successful breeding of Decreased waterbirds and other 1.3 Biolinks and corridors: the ‘pattern that connects’opportunities for 21 riverine animals migration and changes to the phenology DROUGHT BUSHFIRES HEATWAVES HIGHER AVERAGE TEMPERATURES INTENSE STORMS HIGHER CO2 CONCENTRATIONS of species

SEA LEVEL RISE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE Decline in wetland Possible increase and riparian condition in crop and forestry Increased loss of yields when not limited forests and plantationsfrom reduced by other climate to more frequentinundation of wetlands change impacts Relocation of bushfires and floodplains Reduction in water agricultural industries resources available to more suitable areas Decreased for agriculture soil health limiting plant CHAPTER TWO - BIODIVERSITY IS BIncreasesA SIin pests andC , WE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT growth and increasing Loss of ground cover disease reducing erosion increasing erosion Changes in the yields and raising and dust storms management costs distribution and abundance Degraded condition of species, with possible or loss of fire and ECOSYSTElocalM extinctions SERVICES drought sensitive Extended distribution 26 habitats and greater impacts of pest species

Decreased soil health 2.1 Biodiversity – the rare and the mundane Loss of species 27 limiting plant growth sensitive to increased and productivity Reduction in crop yields Reduced pasture from hotter, drier water temperature and growth limiting climate and more reduced river flows grazing opportunities Declines in water severe storms Reduction in timber HOPETO UN-RAINBOW ROAD

AD ROSEBERY EAST ROAD O GROGANS R ROAD

quality from reduced production from E

ROSEBERY-RAINBOW ROAD R ROSEBERY-RAINBOW ROAD 2.2 Fragmentation and physical and community linkages AD 30

Wimmera Cropland Management TransecR t

PIGICK BU -K S ROUTE ROAD R hotter, drier climate W A

H flows, extreme D EET

N I

U H

Y RAINB T Autumn 20OW1 RISE1S ROA D Survey N

and more severe E weather and bushfires H BIRCHIP-RAINBO W ROAD D

AD storms

Reduction in R Changes in freshwater G

W BI U O RCHIP-RAINBOW RO O AD

livestock -W -R

flows and terrestrial AL

-R L

ABE

L W L N A

O production from KE K

R AC

O MB

runoff will impact on A R

D Less frequent frosts D A AD PULLUT WEST ROAD PULLUT EAST ROAD W 2.3 ecosystem services O 31 GALAQUIL WEST ROAD

hotter, drier R GALAQU IL EAST ROAD

H AD

O inshore habitat such reducing the yield -N

P climate and more O

and quality of crops U severe storms as estuaries R APPLEDORES ROAD BRIM EAST ROAD ELLAM-WILLENABRINA ROAD AD

that require chilling G

BRIM WEST ROAD BRIM EAST ROAD P

H N

C H

I Reduced freshwater L AT L D

-MU A for production -

Changes O to the timing NE R THE R R RBY-B

AKER KU R RO L AD L

L A O I AYVI RQ F UON-NET RYATT ROAD

H W inputs will impact on ERBY R OAD AD BEY

L O D

L R A E N

O O

R U of life cycle events

ED Q R G O R LAH WEST ROAD ERL O

EY N RO AD L JEPARIT EAST ROAD LAH EAST ROAD

inshore habitats vital AD O B BL B O I CK 40 R " OAD LORQ R

UON RO L

AD E A AD H JEPARIT-W U O ARRACKNABEAL RO A such as breeding and AD D N A

R L B G O G to many commercial BR L L R OUGHT EN E IP VA ON R I R Jeparit H OAD L O C E R E-L AD AN -BI

O AD AL -K

R D

O N Q ABE

U R O N seasonal migrations AD O O K marine species T D N S WATCHEM-WARRACKNABEAL ROAD O R AC H A

R G R R O G O N N AD N AR

U H R O W

I BY BAN L O L GERANG ROAD N

L BB

T I -Y O ARR ER A BR NYUR K R A U W H EST R TARRANYURK EAST ROA N OAD D

Q E A L ET A R U D C H

O A -N A AD

Inland lakes R BL N L O -L

O O I G L R L PR I

AD R OPO N E DO L H LAH I N R ROA S D N O O AD Y AD

D T O G R A H AK-N AUBREY ROAD T ER D I O G R VER

A R A U

O AR AN A BORUNG HIGHWAY O O

become drier and G O N T AD R -JEP W G N W L O ER BR S L " I - A R P H G G R N L C O

N ER

I I E AD

G D N

E Warracknabeal

R L

E D A

O E BAN H

more saline EO D R

D AN A T G O WERP L P A -W O L O O R I AD AK R O OAD R YU

N K

PA A AD

O EEP

U R O

R O R D SH Increased loss of AD IAPU R -MI O AR O RA M ROA H Y R D T AD R -W O R U NH Y P ILL-D R IAPU O IA R ROAD R N AD D N O BU R O A R " R R S AILSA ROAD I A property, crops U AT IAP C D KI D AD ROAD L SAL HILLS O O BOOLITE-SHEEP R Nhill

W D

I A I L N AW

O G I

Salt water R and livestock to AM L ER EL

L I Y R E A A O MT AST W A

AD W

H AD D - G O I L " O SHEEP HILLS-KELLALAC ROAD G H R R

AD R YI G ER N H O T ST more frequent O U T A AD R R AW

N KA intrusion of coastal U Rising ocean KEE W BO ESTE G BARRAT ROAD RN H O IGHW KA EL A SO AL Y S Kaniva T AD L A A U - O W

T M-K AT H R

A A

KI bushfires MAK R C R H I OKE O R D R

A SH T M N R D AD OAD AC A

U R O freshwater KI R acidification will have O A O K TO CHAPTER - CHALLENGES S H 38 THREE N R ABEA -MU M LD A A ON R D L MI DIMBOOLA-M INYIP ROAD R O A wetlands severe consequences for D D A MINYIP-DIMBOOLA ROAD

O R Dimboola " PE " Rising ocean O OLD MINYIP ROAD MINYIP-RICH AVON ROA H Minyip D

marine species and EN

A-E

V acidification will I HORSHAM-MINYI MI KAN P ROAD NY IP- ecosystems AD BAN O YE R N AD A Y RO O AD

impact on many R MB O

Wind Erosion Risk C R I O C ET IP- D Y N

EO MI commercial species Very Low G " BANYENA ROAD BANYENA-PIMPINIO ROAD 3.1 climate change BANYENA ROAD 40 Towns Low AD

Moderate O

N Transect Route AD

Migration or loss of R

JU High W O R Changes to the Roads AR marine species will -H

L WIMME COOAC RA HIGHWAY Very high L K RO I AD

H D HOBBS ROAD DOOEN SCHOOL ROAD

N A

R distribution of marine affect the viability T Kilometres MI A Waterbody Bare Earth * TRE ROAD ME L Y ERS POLKEMM Reduction in livestock F R ET RO L D OAD AD O N S A G ER

AS 0 5 10 20 R E ± N R O of current fisheries G N SAW PIT SW species KE G AMP ROAD R S- A O productivity and E L GO AD LO ASHEN ROKE-N L NGERENONG S-JACKSON ROAD URCOU ROAD NG ROAD API * Bare Earth is the ConventioOnBRaEElS RFOAaDllow, Stubble Burnt and Stubble to be Burnt management types from the Autumn Survey 2011. 3.2 Fire AR 42 quality from increased heat stress Decreased groundwater resulting in the degraded condition, Impacts on or loss of, groundwater seagrass beds and Impacts on seagrass dependent3.3 ecosystems Land use intensificationcoastal habitats 48 important recruitment beds and coastal sites for many habitats, important 3.4 Invasive species commercial species sites for many species 55 Range extensions of marine pests Impacts on marine threatens fisheries productivity through such as Rock Lobster and Abalone changes to upwelling 3.5 Summary and boundary58 currents

Reduction in groundwater resources available Increase in the for agriculture distribution of marine invasive species

CHAPTER FOUR - MECHANISMS FOR CHANGE, CULTURES OF COMPULSION AND CONNECTIVITY 61 4.1 the role of regulation 61 4.2 Beyond command and control – regulatory support for conservation 70 4.3 administrative monitoring 71 4.4 Shortcomings 74 4.5 resilience 80 4.6 a role for the public and the private landowner 81 4.7 Summary 83 ConTENTS CONTINUED

CHAPTER FIVE - METHODS OF MEETING CHALLENGES ON PRIVATE LAND 84 5.1 private land efforts – inventiveness 85 5.2 other private conservation potential on ‘productive landscapes’ 88 5.3 the levers for change on private land holdings – and a preference hierarchy 89 5.4 payments for Ecosystem Services – the world of incentives 90 5.5 Some Victorian issues with market initiatives 92 5.6 take up – interest and application – a culture of change 95 5.7 Summary 98

CHAPTER SIX - BIOLINKS, CORRIDORS AND THE PRIVATE LAND HOLDER: SHELTER AND CO-BENEFITS 99 6.1 case Study Werribee River Biolink Action Plan Project 100 6.2 Broadcasting incentives to get to landscape scale biolinks and corridors 104 6.3 productive landscapes and biodiversity connectivity co-benefits 108

CHAPTER SEVEN - PROMOTING THE ‘PATTERN THAT CONNECTS’ 110 7.1 Finding a way of valuing the environment, biodiversity and ecosystem services 110 7.2 policy that impacts – incorporating private landowners as partners 111 7.3 ensuring a role for communities 111 7.4 national Wildlife Corridor Plan – trans-boundary ‘whole-of-continent’ possibilities 112 7.5 promoting the ‘pattern that connects’ 115

ENDNOTES 116 o“ “

The Earth’s resources are the basis for our economy, our food supply and our well being. We therefore have to guard nature and act according to the rules. We are stewards: for ourselves, for our economy, for food security, for nature itself and for the generations-to-come. This thinking should be the core of business: working in full co-operation with nature.

Piet W Moerland, CEO, Rabobank Nederlands, signatory to the Natural Capital Declaration at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development Rio + 20, 2012

The Australian Bureau of Statistics values Australia’s natural capital – environmental assets – at $4,574 billion in 2009-2010.

Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012, Completing the picture. Environmental accounting in practice www.abs.gov.au

The tourism value of Great Barrier Reef is $2,257 million per year (2006-7).

World Bank Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) found at www.enefi.org

It is important to understand that identifying the value of nature does not suggest that it should have a cost as a price to be traded in the market and hence commodified. The Economics of Ecology and Biodiversity (TEEB) Report to Rio plus 20, 2012

Our anticipated high population growth and continuing economic growth will also put pressure on our increasingly fragile ecosystems. To ameliorate this pressure a suite of policy interventions will need to be considered including environmental taxes where appropriate along with targeted stewardship and statutory duty of care programs. Report on Australia’s Future Tax System 2010 (‘The Henry Review’ @ page xvi)

I believe it is action by the private and not-for-profit sectors, working with government, that holds the key to protecting our endangered species in a competent and affordable manner. Professor Tim Flannery 2012, in Australia’s New Extinctions Quarterly Essay

It is becoming increasingly apparent that we cannot work with the environment as a separate issue. In order to find solutions to the challenges we face now, environmental issues need to be incorporated into other areas. This commission is about making that possible, and using ecosystem services as a concept to help integrate a perspective about the biosphere in various decisions. Thomas Hahn, Stockholm Resilience Centre, member of Swedish Government Commission on Mainstreaming ecosystem services, 2013 Cressy Grasslands tour Department of Sustainability and Environment and Greening Australia, Borrel-a-kandelup. Image CfES, 2011.

7 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | INTRODUCTION

Introduction

“Farmers rely on natural ecosystems to provide important services such as clean air and water, shade and shelter, pollination and healthy soils. Biodiverse ecosystems are stronger and their complexity provides resilience to adapt to climate change.”

peter Forster, Member Environmental Farmers Network Victoria.1

There is a great willingness The ‘pattern that connects’ biodiversity and private landi amongst the general public Land and Biodiversity. Victoria: the science, our private land to conserve Australia’s holders, incentives and connectivity is the second of the three foundation papers promised in Science, Policy, People, my State of the extraordinary biodiversity. Environment Report Framework 2013.2 People across generations, In this foundation paper we discuss biodiversity and ecosystem sectors and cultures services and explore conservation and protection opportunities in private landscapes. A wider discussion of environmental trends and the generously give their time to functions of the public reserve system together with recommendations friends groups, other non- will be provided in the State of the Environment Report 2013. government organisations, Globally, the only positive indicator about biodiversity protection (in the light Landcare, conservation of our obligations under the 2002 Convention on Biological Diversity) is the extension of protected areas and even this has not arrested the precipitous networks and less formal decline in biological diversity and detriment to ecosystem services.3 local organisations. There is a great willingness amongst the general public to conserve Australia’s extraordinary biodiversity. People across generations, sectors and cultures generously give their time to friends groups, other non- government organisations, Landcare, conservation networks and less formal local organisations. We have worked to change our environmental practices over time. Scientists, citizens, administrators, regulators, business, private land owners and the generations-to-come all have an interest and stake in taking care of the environment.4 With 62% of the land base in Victoria under private ownership, including those areas with habitats for the majority of rare, threatened or endangered species, biodiversity conservation effort needs to include private land. This foundation paper is directed at those who are interested in the ways in which conservation on private land can be fostered and supported and the types of policy instruments that can be used to support conservation goals.

i Throughout this paper the phrase the ‘pattern that connects’. It is drawn from the work of Gregory Bateson, in particular his book Mind and Nature. A necessary unity, 1980 Bantam Books, New York. I was introduced to this work by Professor Frank Fisher, a great environmentalist, teacher and mentor who died in 2012.

8 McCubbin, F. 1904 - The pioneer. National Gallery of Victoria.

Project Platypus – tree guard assembly line. Image courtesy of David Fletcher.

studies are showing a real interest in private land stewardship – “...there is a receptive audience in farmers for an integrated conservation– production management message. Our general experience with both croppers and graziers has been that they are willing to consider and, where possible implement, a range of conservation-focused activities to manage biodiversity on their farms, if they are provided with the necessary information. They are often also prepared to provide resources towards this end.”5

9 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | INTRODUCTION

Private landowners are Ethos an intrinsic part of the Underpinning this foundation paperii is the idea of a shared responsibility ‘pattern that connects’. for the biological diversity which provides all of us with essential ecosystem services. A great deal is being done by private landowners in partnerships6 with each other, with non-government organisations (NGOs), business and all tiers of government. A wide range of incentives is being exercised and a broad group of sectors, extending beyond, but including landowners, is involved.7 Private landowners are an intrinsic part of the ‘pattern that connects’. Their ‘biodiversity corridors’ work requires financing, authorisation, mainstreaming and appreciation. This foundation paper is directed towards those in our community who are interested in the ways in which conservation on private land can be fostered and supported.

Our method The defining features of the role of my office include: • working to reflect the environment and its ecosystem services as cultural, social and economic sinews in people’s lives • recognising the importance of really broad community consultation about the environment in which we live and in which we wish to live • developing reports to speak to, and also echo the knowledge and concerns of a broad, regional and metropolitan public. Adhering to these principles will entail telling stories about the work we all do across sectors, cultures and geographies to protect and conserve ecosystems and the services they provide. In keeping with those attributes this foundation paper reflects public comment made in consultative settings. In it we concern ourselves with the cultural, social and economic variables underpinning those comments. We strive to speak to a wide public and, where appropriate, we reference the work being done on the ground, as it has been told to us.

ii See Introduction to Climate Change. Victoria: the science, our people and our state of play for a discussion of purpose of foundation papers.

10 Some background In my first foundation paper –Climate Change. Victoria: the science, our people and our state of play8 – we considered the climate change implications for biodiversity and represented the complexity of the flow-on effects of climate change on both biodiversity and primary production. The climate change and biodiversity impacts infographic from the climate change foundation paper is reproduced here to remind us of the complex and interrelated challenges ahead. The Victorian State of the Environment Report 2008,9 considered land and biodiversity issues at a time of protracted drought. The critical role of biodiversity in overall environmental health was considered, as was the significant economic impacts of the degradation of our land and biodiversity.10 The critical role of biodiversity in overall environmental health was considered, as was the significant economic impacts of the degradation of our land and biodiversity.10

11 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | INTRODUCTION

REDUCED RAINFALL BUSHFIRES HEATWAVES HIGHER AVERAGE TEMPERATURES INTENSE STORMS HIGHER CO2 CONCENTRATIONS

SEA LEVEL RISE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE

Changes to phenology altering Fewer numbers Loss of interactions between and less frequent alpine ecosystems species successful breeding of Decreased waterbirds and other opportunities for riverine animals migration and changes to the phenology of species

Decline in wetland and riparian condition from reduced inundation of wetlands and floodplains Decreased soil health limiting plant growth and increasing erosion Changes in the distribution and abundance Degraded condition of species, with possible or loss of fire and local extinctions drought sensitive Extended distribution habitats and greater impacts of pest species

Loss of species sensitive to increased water temperature and reduced river flows Declines in water quality from reduced flows, extreme weather and bushfires Changes in freshwater flows and terrestrial runoff will impact on inshore habitat such as estuaries Changes to the timing of life cycle events such as breeding and seasonal migrations Inland lakes become drier and more saline

Salt water intrusion of coastal Rising ocean freshwater acidification will have wetlands severe consequences for marine species and ecosystems

Changes to the distribution of marine species Decreased groundwater resulting in the degraded condition, or loss of, groundwater Impacts on seagrass dependent ecosystems beds and coastal habitats, important sites for many species

Impacts on marine productivity through changes to upwelling and boundary currents

Increase in the distribution of marine invasive species

Figure 1: Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity. Source Climate Change Victoria: the science, our people and our state of play. CfES developed infographic, 2012.

12 REDUCED RAINFALL BUSHFIRES HEATWAVES HIGHER AVERAGE TEMPERATURES INTENSE STORMS HIGHER CO2 CONCENTRATIONS

SEA LEVEL RISE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE

Salt water intrusion of coastal Rising ocean freshwater acidification will have wetlands severe consequences for marine species and ecosystems

Impacts on marine productivity through changes to upwelling and boundary currents

Increase in the distribution of marine invasive species

13 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | INTRODUCTION

We are witnessing In Victoria... a coalescence of Across Victoria a vast array of private-public environmental partnerships are underway. Look for example, to the website in interests, opportunities Backbone to Biolinks the north east, the Dartmoor Biodiversity Fund project in the south west, and activities and it is and the Cape Liptrap to Bunurong Biolink Project which is building links apparent that agriculture from Andersons Inlet to Cape Liptrap and the Strzelecki Ranges. Landcare provides a uniquely Victorian illustration of people’s capacity and biodiversity are a to link up and generate better environmental practice. Bodies like Greening great deal more than Australia, Conservation Volunteers Australia (headquartered in Ballarat) simply contiguous zones. and the Trust for Nature, a statutory not-for-profit organisation, auspice and support private efforts extraneous to and in partnerships with government departments and agencies. Geographies, ecological communities and species, from Blackburn and Yellingbo to the Werribee plains, from Orbost to Sealake and the alps to the ocean, are nurtured in this way. We are witnessing a coalescence of interests, opportunities and activities and it is apparent that agriculture and biodiversity are a great deal more than simply contiguous zones. Farming communities visited over the last three years know: “… the environment provides natural resources essential to Australia’s productive capacity and ecosystems that absorb and assimilate the waste generated by people and industry. Sound land and water management practices are essential to maintaining agricultural production … biodiversity enables technological progress …” 11 Based on this, and given the extent of private land holdings in Victoria – 62%12 13 – it is necessary for us as a community to share and capture, celebrate and capitalise on, the interest of private land owners. Environmental grants from all manner of sources, government and private, have already aided change-management in individual settings. An increasing range of incentives and payments for ecosystem services (PES) offer enormous potential for: • private land biodiversity and ecosystem service protection • improvements on individual land holdings • linkages through a systematic biolinks and corridors program. Interventions of this type operate against a backdrop of changes in land use, population increase, fire, increases in pest species and habitat fragmentation, problems with monitoring, enforcement difficulties and inconsistencies14 and climate change. In my foundation paper, Climate Change Victoria: the science, our people and our state of play, we illustrated the compounding and cascading effects of climate change on biodiversity, ecosystem services and agriculture15 and it has been remarked that biodiversity is now vulnerable in novel, uncharted ways.

14 o“ “

Land managers now recognise that formal reserves alone are not sufficient to stem biodiversity loss (Dodd et al. 2011), and recent | initiatives explicitly promote biodiversity conservation on private farmland (Norton and Miller 2000). Habitat remnants on farms are becoming a key focus in the management of biodiversity, and in the development of guidelines for regional biodiversity protection.16 Effective, not just aspirational protection of endangered species, ecological communities and environmental landscapes is a matter of real and pressing community concern. This makes the task of protecting biodiversity all the more urgent. It also means that we have to continue to develop ways to connect fragmented landscapes to render them more resilient. The ‘biolinks’ movement and corridor connectivity, is fundamental to this and links will have to be made beyond the boundaries of public land.

As this work is done, we need to acknowledge it is for our environment and for all of us.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge all of the departments, agencies, academics, technical specialists and community members who have contributed to this foundation paper. In particular, I would like to acknowledge Professor Ary Hoffman FAA, University of Melbourne, for his considered and insightful comments during the development of this foundation paper. I would also like to express my appreciation to Professor Rodney Keenan, University of Melbourne and Director of the Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research, Christine Forster, Peter Forster and Michael Nash, University of Melbourne for their assistance in the development of Land and Biodiversity. Victoria: the science, our private landholders, incentives and connectivity.

Professor Kate Auty | PhD, MEnvSc, Dip Int Env Law (UNITAR), BA(Hons)/LL.B, GAICD Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability

15 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER ONE - THE PATTERN THAT CONNECTS – our Shared responsibility

Chapter One - THE ‘PATTERN THAT CONNECTS’ – OUR SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

Recent ‘bush blitzes’ 1.1 a variety of interventions have unearthed a number of species The Victorian context of spider, moths and Demonstrating our commitment to innovation various methodologies for change are being studied and adopted to augment and institute change.17 other insects previously Benign neglect, ‘informed inaction’,18 or ‘passive regeneration’, all unknown or unrecorded associated with the changing demographic in farming landscapes but this does not mean and the transition to ‘amenity landscapes’,19 are producing biodiversity outcomes across the landscape – for free, as Lunt and others tell us.20 our biodiversity balance However, the simple failure to deplete our environmental estate will is better – it is just never be enough to arrest biodiversity decline. As we have known different, again.23 for generations, action, not just omission, is required. Our potential to compound our record of extinctions is confronting.21 When the State of the Victorian Environment Report 2008 was compiled the Department of Sustainability and Environment provided data which suggested that 157 animal species were threatened and 24 had become extinct. Threatened plant species totalled 778 and 51 had been recorded as extinct.22 Our baseline data is incomplete and this makes us less, not more, confident about what we know. Recent ‘bush blitzes’ have unearthed a number of species of spider, moths and other insects previously unknown or unrecorded but this does not mean our biodiversity balance is better – it is just different, again.23 All the studies, reports, research and field work tell us our biodiversity future looks a lot like our past – bleak – without serious intervention.

16 The international context In international settings The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is exploring investment in natural capital through: • offsets • the principled application of ‘no net loss’ • payments for ecosystem services (PES) • tax and fiscal incentives • subsidy reform.24 Projects attach to fisheries and dairying, timber procurement and carbon credit schemes. This commitment to options across a range of sites and sectors is being reflected in many jurisdictions. Accepting the need for hierarchical environmental management the USA EPA and the US Army Corp of Engineers have used ‘no net loss’ to address wetlands issues, requiring adherence to a mitigation sequence which: • b e g i n s with the avoidance of loss • progresses to minimisation of harm • only remits ‘offsets’ as a last resort. There have been criticisms of such responses. These stem from the delays between the land alteration and restoration projects when offsetting does occur, as permits are issued with the view that wetland destruction and compensatory mitigation are concurrent and instantaneous.25 The inherent delays associated with initiating and completing restoration activities results in temporary wetland losses that can compound in a consistent, temporary net loss of wetland area and function over time. As with any offsetting program, there are also significant concerns regarding homogeneity of conserved wetland systems.26

The Australian response Avoidance and mitigation measures are the primary strategies for managing the potential significant impact of a proposed action. They directly reduce the scale and intensity of the potential impacts of a proposed action. Offsets do not reduce the likely impacts of a proposed action, but instead compensate for any residual significant impact.27 While ‘no net loss’ is the objective of Victoria’s permitted clearing regulations as well, the overarching policy of Victoria’s Native Vegetation Management – A Framework for Action is “a reversal, across the entire landscape, of the long term decline in the extent and quality of native vegetation, leading to a net gain.”28 ‘Net gain’ of biodiversity is the subject of heightened interest. Whilst attracting the same hierarchical mitigation requirements, some would argue a commitment to ‘net gain’ strives to do more than simply maintain the biodiversity status quo, which is depleted and depleting.

17 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER ONE - THE PATTERN THAT CONNECTS – our Shared responsibility

So, if stewardship is These initiatives can be driven by policy instruments and by regulatory important how will we mechanisms, but even together these may not affect the arrest of biodiversity decline. attain it? Legal sanctions have, some argue, limited impact in improving environmental condition: ‘Although central (command and control) regulation and taxes can eliminate externalities and hence, the ‘Tragedy of the Commons,’ the empirical history in many cases has not been particularly satisfying’.29 Economists have recently suggested that ‘public trust litigation’ is simply costly and actually ‘hinder[s] timely and economical dispute resolution’.30 Examining the regulatory environment, some argue that ‘while regulatory approaches can require a cessation of clearing of key targeted vegetation types they will not enhance condition’.31 One of the key findings of Marsden Jacob Review of the Environmental Stewardship Program in 2010 makes the point: ‘existing regulatory approaches [across all jurisdictions] are an insufficient policy intervention in their own right to achieve the policy objectives of environmental stewardship’.32 In considering stewardship, and appropriate policy interventions, the interrelatedness of the social, economic and environmental aspects should be acknowledged. While the primary consideration in determining suitable offsets is delivering a conservation gain for the impacted protected matter, the delivery of offsets that establish positive social or economic co-benefits is encouraged. Social and economic or environmental co-benefits may be delivered where an offset aligns with broader strategic environmental objectives such as those outlined in the National Wildlife Corridors Plan, the Indigenous health strategy Closing the gap, or policies that enhance the environment of regional Australia. For example: • an offset contributing to an area recognised as important to increasing landscape connectivity, above and beyond what is required by the impacted protected matter • an offset that employs local Indigenous rangers to undertake management actions • an offset delivered by paying rural landholders to protect and manage land for conservation purposes.33 So, if stewardship is important how will we attain it?

18 1.2 incentives It is true that successes and failures will need to Inventive proposals, such as incentives and payments for ecosystem services (PES) appear to be presenting real potential for change and be evaluated carefully – validation of efforts already underway. we almost require a new Internationally, government programs employ various mechanisms to form of environmental encourage changes in land management on privately owned lands, in order to enhance biodiversity outcomes or natural resource management. impact study as distinct from a simple mechanism These mechanisms are diverse and include education, awareness raising, technology transfer, research and development, regulation, for determining whether subsidies and other economic instruments.34 However, programs often monies have been rely on one or only a few mechanisms. spent efficiently. Based on new ways of thinking about our intense reliance upon nature and the value of ecosystem services and about ‘human dominated landscapes’, incentive schemes are making places for people in biodiversity solutions. As ‘innovative finance mechanisms’ such schemes are increasingly promoted, both here and internationally35 in spite of old worries about the problems of social cost36 and the issues which underpin ‘externalities’.37 Incentives arguably allow for local flexibilities. Their deployment may promote cost savings and higher-valued uses and will almost certainly result in the generation of valuable information. Alignment of ambitions and outcomes may follow. When provided to people with connections to places they care about this type of initiative picks up on the patterns that connect people to sites, geographies, vistas, and flora and fauna populations which they know and value. It is true that successes and failures will need to be evaluated carefully – we almost require a new form of environmental impact study as distinct from a simple mechanism for determining whether monies have been spent efficiently. In some instances it would appear that incentives, deployed as one of many processes, will work with other initiatives for greatest effect. This makes sense and is supported by the considerable research which talks about blending programs and aligning and integrating policy options with the concerns of people on the ground. In Costa Rica, where a lot of early work on payments for ecosystem services was instituted, reduction in deforestation is arguably the product of a number of things. There change was effected by the marriage of a number of innovations and this specifically included incentives and legal restrictions, as changes to the law and payments for ecosystem services both commenced at the same time.38 Their impacts cannot be separated.

19 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER ONE - THE PATTERN THAT CONNECTS – our Shared responsibility

We will all benefit from The attraction of finding diverse market mechanisms has grown out landowners protecting of frustrations with the failures of established practice to conserve and protect biodiversity. Incentive payments may well, as a component of a their wetlands by locking systematic approach, fund improvements in land management practices them into their farm and biodiversity outcomes. planning regimes As a means to working through this complexity, David Pannell recommends a framework based on identifying the private and public net if payments for protection benefits from the land-use changes being proposed.39 The framework of these ecosystems recognises that environmental managers can invest in a range of projects are available. involving changes to land use on private land, and that the available options vary widely in the levels of public and private net benefits they generate – potentially including negative net benefits.

We will all benefit from landowners protecting their wetlands by locking them into their farm planning regimes if payments for protection of these ecosystems are available.

Water Sources

20 1.3 Biolinks and corridors: the ‘pattern Corridors and linkages, that connects’ for which there is real community support,41 Beyond examining incentives in respect of individual landscape revegetation and conservation projects in this paper we also examine their are pivotal for biodiversity potential in promoting the landscape linkages – biolinks and biodiversity protection across 40 corridors – which are essential for better environmental outcomes. fragmented and privately 41 Corridors and linkages, for which there is real community support, owned landscapes. are pivotal for biodiversity protection across fragmented and privately owned landscapes. The scope for corridor connectivity and biolinks on many scales is quite marked as some aspirational planning demonstrates.

The maintenance of appropriate connectivity is an important component of any effective conservation strategy in production | landscapes. However, the task of maintaining or enhancing connectivity is not necessarily a straightforward one because the concept of connectivity is complex and multi-faceted. In an attempt to tackle this complexity, Lindenmayer and Fischer (2007) recognised three kinds of connectivity. Habitat connectivity can be broadly defined as an emergent property of ecosystem mosaics that reflects the influence of landscape structure on a species’ mobility and its probability of survival within and among resource patches. Landscape connectivity is based on a human perspective of landscape pattern and typically relates to the connectedness of native vegetation patches. In some circumstances, and for some species, habitat connectivity and landscape connectivity will be closely correlated. In others, habitat connectivity for a given species will be quite different from a human perspective of landscape connectivity. Ecological connectivity is the connectedness of key ecosystem processes (Lindenmayer and Fischer 2007). Understanding these relationships is crucial because we generally manage on the basis of habitat connectivity, with the goal of achieving landscape connectivity.42

21 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER ONE - THE PATTERN THAT CONNECTS – our Shared responsibility

In its Biodiversity Strategy for the Goulburn Broken Catchment 2010-2015 the GBCMA provides a map which illustrates biolink possibilities across the region from Glenrowan to north of Seymour, west beyond Nagambie and north along the rivers and creeks to the Murray. Townsfolk in Picola, Nathalia, Euroa, Violet Town, Avenal, Benalla and Ruffy all have an interest in this project and many may find they have highly gratifying roles to play. The GBCMA works at several scales. Its finalised Regional Catchment Management Strategy, which defines areas of socio-ecological systems, talks of resilience theory, and is another valuable way at looking at prioritising catchment assets.

Figure 2: Biodiversity Assets for Goulburn Broken Catchment, Victoria, 2010-2015. http://www.gbcma.vic.gov.au

22 The Victorian Environmental Assessment Council also provides an illustration of the way we can plan for this sort of change across landscapes which juggle productivity and fragmentation.

Figure 3: VEAC (Victorian Environmental Assessment Council). http://www.veac.vic.gov.au/ investigation/remnant-native- vegetation-investigation/reports

Such representations form a part of a larger tapestry. Farm planning Biolinks do not have is being promoted to give effect to the commitment to integrate aspirations to be broad scale. and commercial realities as population demographics and climate change impact and heighten concerns about viability. The fencing of creeks, of They can be confined, steep hillsides, or of wetlands, is all conducive to change and, if supported intimate, carefully even by payments for ecosystem service provision – which is what these initiatives do – have the potential to align with other, landscape change. micro-engineered Biolinks do not have to be broad scale. They can be confined, intimate, and they can arise carefully micro-engineered and they can arise from the most unlikely from the most unlikely circumstances. The depiction of the sort of efforts which may be drawn circumstances. together to develop these possibilities illustrates our point.

23 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER ONE - THE PATTERN THAT CONNECTS – our Shared responsibility

Figure 4: Biodiversity Conservation Corridor Initiative http://www.adb.org/ Projects/core-environment- program/why.asp

The importance of The importance of linkages is also evident at the smaller scale and in metropolitan settings. Members of the public, in the public domain and linkages is also evident in their private gardens have the potential to play a part in closed settled at the smaller scale and places like Blackburn, the Merri Creek and along the Maribyrnong River in metropolitan settings. as biolinks can work across smaller scales too.

24 Even large scale organisations, like VicRoads can contribute, as they have in various ways, including the provision of a tunnel under the Calder Highway.

A VicRoads study of fauna crossings along the Calder Freeway has revealed many iconic Australian animals using the underpasses as | alternative routes. The Eastern Grey Kangaroo, the Black Wallaby, Short-Beaked Echidna and even koalas have been photographed taking advantage of the Slaty Creek underpass. In all, 36 species of wildlife were monitored making 4861 trips under the Calder using a number of different crossings between spring 2011 and autumn 2012.

Images – Vicroads http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/NewsRoom/News+Releases/ CandidCameraCaptureFaunaCrossingCapers.htm

In summary this paper starts with a discussion of the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services, then moves to consider ongoing and arising challenges before returning to examine payments for ecosystem services and the role they may play in generating connectivity across our fragmented landscapes.

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Chapter TWO - BIODIVERSITY IS BASIC, WE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT ECOSYSTEM SERVICES Canopy, understory; fungi; predators, the predated; invertebrates and fish; the tiny, the great and the good, the beautiful and the ugly; those that can fly and those that slither or can barely crawl; the slothful and the industrious; they all link in the natural world in important ways. Remarkably, such natural collaborations engender and provide ecosystem services: good health, clean air, drinkable water, satisfying recreational and cultural lives, food production, carbon storage and other necessities. In our private worlds we benefit from the public good of biodiversity – beyond our individual understandings of its value43 and often beyond our institutional ability to measure it.44 Data gaps are a continuing problem even though Victoria has a history of scrutiny from the early work of the Land Conservation Council.45 Biological diversity – biodiversity – has intrinsic value, but it is also useful to all of us – in the reserve system and the private domain, in the bush and in the city, along watercourses, in parks, sometimes even in simple and unassuming streetscapes.46 Biodiversity is not only the province of distant, cold and wet, hot and dry, national parks, it is all around us, deliberately altered and unintentionally modified, depleted, noticed or ignored, but there, nonetheless. Biodiversity, sustaining, useful and productive, attracts our attention in both the public reserve system, where we expect to find it, and in private and agricultural landscapes because, as we know, some 62% of Victoria’s land mass is in private ownership. Fragmented landscapes make up almost 79% of the Victorian landscape. Further, the extent of remnant vegetation, a foundation stone for biodiversity protection, in fragmented landscapes is nearly equally divided between public and private land47 suggesting the: ‘importance of … voluntary conservation efforts is inescapable’.48 The Victorian Environmental Assessment Council reports: ‘ Victoria is the most cleared of all Australia’s states and territories, with more than half of the original extent of native vegetation cleared for agriculture and urban development. This inhabited, modified and farmed landscape is as distinctively Victorian as our large areas of natural wilderness’.49

Figure 5: Land Conservation Council Mallee Map 10 West Floristic Vegetation.

26 2.1 Biodiversity – the rare and the mundane Biodiversity is about the rare and the ordinary: the worldly variety of plants, animals and micro-organisms, species and underlying genes, and the formation of unique communities.50 Complicated, biodiversity is a concept which at its best helps us understand natural processes. It reflects the important interactions of the odd, the normal and even the normalised or altered. It is because of the intrinsic value and the importance of this connectivity that we need to worry about the loss of species. People come together because of these concerns, to preserve the helmeted honey eater, the brush tailed phascogale, the Leadbeaters possum, and vegetation communities such as those found in the Alps, in heavily occupied areas like Yellingbo, and in seemingly fallow areas like the western grasslands just outside Melbourne. The value of apparently mundane Victorian Volcanic Plain grasslands in the conservation of the plains rice flower,51 the eastern barred bandicoot (mainland),52 the plains wanderer,53 fragrant double-tails54 and other species of ‘special importance’ should not be underestimated.55

Melbourne views from Mt Cotterell looking down on the Victorian Volcanic Plain and western grasslands.. Image CfES, 2012.

Biodiversity: we can’t live without it, and report after report tells us we can’t live with it either. |

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Internationally and nationally we should be concerned Internationally the European Union Biodiversity Action Plan for Agriculture and the United Nations Global Biodiversity Outlook 2011 and, nationally, the Commonwealth SOE 2011, tell us, in the face of increasing population, changing land use practices, habitat fragmentation, collapsing floral and fauna distributions,56 climate change and other stressors,57 that we need to take greater care of biodiversity as it constitutes a fundamental public good. We need to care for and nurture all manner of things that ascend and descend, that burrow, slither, fly and swim: of grasses and sedges, tall flowering trees and understorey: for their individual and collective value, intrinsic and otherwise.58

It is closer than you think To raise the level of interest in the protection of Australia’s internationally recognised biological uniqueness59 we can focus on the rare, and discuss endangerment and threatening processes.60 However, and somewhat surprisingly, even cityscapes present possibilities. The Yarra River watershed is home to the rare brush-tailed phasogale, a species where the male dies after mating.61 Two hundred Rosella Spider Orchids,62 found in only four places in the world, and classified by both the state and the commonwealth as rare and endangered, are found at Research, just to the east of Melbourne. A tiny population of twenty Charming Spider Orchids63 has been recorded at North Warrandyte.

Rosella Spider Orchid. Image courtesy of Landcare Port Phillip and WesternPort.

28 Within 50 kms of Melbourne the Yellingbo area has such diverse We need to care for environmental depth that it is suggested by VEAC that a State Emblems and nurture all manner Conservation Area be established. The powerful owl, helmeted honey eater, Leadbeaters possum, growling grass frog, swamp skink, Emerald of things that ascend star bush, Eucalyptus camphora swamp vegetation community64 and tall and descend, that astelia lily are all found there. Rarity, there as elsewhere, is compounded by a fragmented landscape. burrow, slither, fly and swim; of grasses and The ordinary is also important – what we can’t and sedges, tall flowering don’t see trees and understorey; Intriguing as this rarity-narrative is, the ordinary – seemingly indiscriminate plenty – is equally important in sustainability efforts. Ordinary things, the for their individual and stuff we can see and feel in our everyday lives, plentiful in circumscribed collective value, intrinsic places or found in great blocs or across swathes of country, also come 58 together to support and provide the things we can’t live without – things and otherwise. like fresh air, clean water: ecosystem services. In fact, we can’t (as distinct from don’t) even see some of the fundamentals of our soil life-systems, those millions of microscopic, microfauna, microarthropods and earthworms and termites, which, living their clandestine lives, ‘…don’t just sit quietly in the soil, [but] are highly active, burrowing, moving soil around, ingesting it and mixing it with their intestinal juices before defecating it, consuming rotting dead roots and litter, absorbing hard to get at phosphates and performing a host of other soil forming processes’.65

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2.2 Fragmentation and physical and community linkages

If we reflect on the fragmentation which undermines the rare and the | ordinary, potentially reducing the plentiful and every day to the unique, researchers tells us that we ought to both consider and implement better landscape and community linkages. If we take the recent work of the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, acting in partnership with Yorta Yorta traditional owners, to monitor the health and status of turtle populations in the Barmah Millewa Forest, the extent of interactive possibilities becomes clear. During the drought years turtles were found dead in large numbers. They sought out refuge. Their reliance upon ephemeral water sources was elevated. Three species were effected. Their ‘delayed maturation, low fecundity and low egg and hatchling survival rates’ made them vulnerable to disturbances, decline and extinction. Researchers with the Arthur Rylah Institute report that the ‘Murray River Turtle and the Broad-shelled turtle [a Yorta Yorta totem] are considered to be threatened in Victoria, being listed as ‘data deficient’ and ‘threatened’ respectively’.66 Partnering to study the situation has promoted better data, improved monitoring techniques – including the deployment of a completely novel tracking device – and clearer understandings of the role of the linkages of water systems and the role turtles play in the ecosystem.67 Partnerships, new and old relationships, can be forged and augmented. There is a significant role for private landholders and others to engage in all manner of efforts to institute biodiversity and ‘natural capital’ protection.68 Significantly, Aboriginal people, who have more recently found themselves enabled to again, actively, assume cultural and time- honoured environmental stewardship and management, will increasingly reclaim this role given land reparations associated with native title. Partnerships with the scientific community are already being forged.

Yorta Yorta/Broad-shelled Turtle. Image courtesy of DSE.

30 2.3 ecosystem services The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the fuel we burn – ecosystem services – are functions supported by biodiversity and its attributes. Provision of bio-fuels, medicines, waste processing, nutrient cycling, pest regulation, pollination, water storage and treatment, the creation of favourable microclimates, air quality regulation, cultural, health and mental health benefits, (many often very difficult to assess and attribute), all flow from the environment to us.69

MOUNTAIN AND POLAR INLAND WATER CULTIVATED COASTAL Food Rivers & other wetlands Food Food Fiber Fresh water Fiber Fiber Fresh water Food Fresh water Timber Erosion control Pollution control Dyes Fuel Climate regulation Flood regulation Timber Climate regulation Recreation and ecotourism Sediment retention Pest regulation Waste processing Aesthetic values & transport Biofuels Nutrient cycling Spiritual values Disease regulation Medicines Storm & wave protection Nutrient cycling Nutrient cycling Recreation & ecotourism Recreation & ecotourism Aesthetic values Aesthetic values Aesthetic values Cultural heritage FOREST & WOODLAND URBAN Food Parks & gardens Timber Air quality regulation MARINE Fresh water Water regulation Food Fuelwood DRYLANDS Local climate regulation Climate regulation Flood reulation Cultural heritage Nutrient cycling Disease regulation Food Fiber Recreation Recreation Carbon sequestration Education Local climate regulation Fuelwood Medicines Local climate regulation ISLAND Recreation Cultural heritage Food Aestetic values Recreation & ecotourism Fresh water Spiritual values Spiritual values Recreation & ecotourism

Figure 6: Ecosystem Uninterested as we appear to have become in these processes services. they nevertheless sustain us in varied places, providing primary and Source Millennium secondary co-benefits. Take the water purification and economic benefits Ecosystem Assessment. of a wetlands in Uganda.70 Or consider the New York City water supply CfES modified infographic. which is drawn from the Catskill Mountains watershed where farmers have been paid for years to deliver the ecosystem service of clean, safe, drinking water.71

Attenuation and ephemera – our peculiarly Australian environment Such benefits may appear to be attenuated by distance.Adequate water storage, a necessity for city dwellers and agriculture, may depend on biodiversity located a vast distance from the paddock or process where it will be used. It is estimated that ‘one third of the world’s largest cities obtain a significant portion of their drinking water directly from protected lands’.72

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Australia was a small The Australian alps, including the Bogong High Plains, provides 29% of the water flow into the Murray Darling Basin. This in turn supports agricultural producer of canola production, urban water supplies and broad scale environmental health in the 1980s, but it is along the whole length of the Murray River and its tributaries.73 now the second largest Climate change and population growth mean that the ecosystem services global exporter of the associated with water will only grow. Professor Weller (WA) has very recently made the point to a Victorian parliamentary inquiry (2012) that: seed and a recent study ‘All future developments will have to harvest water. Water is the new has shown that bees gold. Every surface of the city will have to harvest water and filter it’.74 increase crop yield by More specifically, in the light of climate change and other pressures on more than 20%.77 the environment: ‘… every litre of water delivered from the catchment of A2A [the Australian Alps to Atherton biolink] becomes more valuable with time’.75

Defying compartmentalisation As this realisation sinks in we need to recognise that nature’s industry and its impacts defy compartmentalisation. Many biodiversity-driven ecosystem services, like the work of bees, or of ‘private, understated and overlooked’ butterflies76 or sugar gliders in pollination, and the work of birds and insects in pest control, contribute to and rely upon biodiversity in local landscapes adjacent to cropping sites for shelter, habitat and dietary variety. Recent work on pollination of canola crops by honey bees tells us how complex this story is and how massive this contribution can be. Australia was a small producer of canola in the 1980s, but it is now the second largest global exporter of the seed and a recent study has shown that bees increase crop yield by more than 20%.77 It has also been suggested that as much as 50% of crop pollination is carried out by native insects.78

32 Canola paddocks. Image CfES, 2011.

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The work of nature in actively delivering pest control has far reaching consequences. Take the case of one of the smallest but most industrious of insects – the ant…..

| Pest control: biodiversity in native ant populations limit invasive alien species and pests in vineyards Iridomyrmex spp. is a dominant functional ant group in Australia.79 Invasive alien ants, Linepithema humile, have been recorded since 1939, firstly in Balwyn, Melbourne. They have spread widely displacing native species and promoting pest mealybugs and scale that attack vines. However, records from vineyards surrounding Melbourne (2003-07) indicate that this invasive species L. humile populations is yet to become dominant, because the dominant native species Iridomyrmex, together with other native species, outcompete this introduced species.80 In this example, a biodiverse community of ants, with more than 50 native species potentially present in a single vineyard, has been shown to exclude destructive invaders. They do not work in isolation. Their work is augmented by native vegetation around vineyards which has also been shown to harbour numerous natural predators and parasitoids which attack vineyard pests like moths and mites.

Ecosystem services Very broadly and less prosaic than the heavy lifting industry of these little creatures, microclimate control is, like some wetlands, ephemeral cannot be diced and and a ‘service’ which we overlook, yet it is highly dependent on the sliced and subjected to maintenance of vegetation in the broader landscape.81 a rigidly construed cost Valuing ecosystem services benefit analysis to justify These vital things, ecosystem services, are produced by the variety and the commitment of any of diversity of our biological systems, by populations of relative abundance 82 us – private landowners, and scarcity, and by effective interactions among and between species. Ecosystem services cannot be diced and sliced and subjected to a rigidly public officials and construed cost benefit analysis to justify the commitment of any of us – politicians – to nature private landowners, public officials and politicians – to nature conservation. ‘Ecosystem services’ which allow us to thrive have intrinsic and real value. conservation. ‘Ecosystem Increasingly, however, picking up the threads of earlier analysis of the services’ which allow us effectiveness or otherwise of market and incentive mechanisms in to thrive have intrinsic and protecting the environment,83 efforts are being made to consider how real value. value might be reflected in the ways in which we work to conserve and manage biodiversity, resources and ecosystem services.84

34 The ABS and BOM recently convened a conference around this issue An eclectic array of in Melbourne – Completing the Picture: Environmental Accounting in presenters discussed the Practice (May 2012). An eclectic array of presenters discussed the integration of environment and economic issues. Additionally, applied integration of environment reseachers like Maynard, the Ecosystems Service Project Manager from and economic issues. South East Queensland Catchment and others, are working to develop a framework by which to measure and manage ecosystem services: ‘…to provide the tools to enable government, industry, business, researchers, non-government organisations and land managers to apply the concept of ecosystem services in their planning and management practices’.85 At the Victorian end of the discussion, promoting the success of BushTender and WetlandsTender the DSE EnSym (Environmental Systems Modelling Platform) ecosystem services valuation tool, is also gaining momentum.86

EnSym has gained traction in west Gippsland as the valuation tool supporting the payment of incentives for wetland protection. It has | been described in the following way: ‘EnSym (Environmental Systems Modelling Platform) is a computer program designed by the Victorian Government to provide: • simple and intuitive access to complex science that helps prioritise natural resource investment • an understanding of the environmental benefits delivered by actions undertaken in the landscape • a framework for scientists and researchers to test and apply empirical and process based scientific models. EnSym employs scientific models to improve understanding about the impacts that actions such as revegetation, weed control and riparian management, have on the landscape. Users can visualise, test and interpret results of changes in climate, land use and land management practices through a single interface. Models are grouped into 5 toolboxes that relate to different sections of the landscape and analytical capabilties’.87

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The actual extent of the benefits accruing from even small interconnections should not be dismissed and as the Yellingbo reference shows, links can be forged in quite unusual places.

Figure 7: West Gippsland EcoTender 2010-2011 Environmental Economic Outcomes Report. DSE, 2012.

The map of the roll out of the eco-tender incentives offered in West Gippsland (above) demonstrates the potential of incentives (payments for ecosystem services) to have far reaching and often unintended beneficial consequences for biodiversity protection: • the simple exercise of determining acceptable applications produced new sightings of endangered and threatened species which added to the importance of the area and encouraged and enthused partners • the use of the eco tender incentive was clearly embraced by a range of people, expanding the sphere of influence of payments for ecosystem services and as a demonstration site it increased levels of interest • the sheer mass of the tenders, so visually depicted, illustrates the potential for programs such as this in promoting biodiversity linkages, whether as core, corridor, stepping stone or nodes. The actual extent of the benefits accruing from even small interconnections should not be dismissed and as the Yellingbo reference shows, links can be forged in quite unusual places.

36 Payments made for services provided by unattractive mangroves in carbon sequestration and as sea ‘walls’ resisting tidal surges and erosion, and the avoidance of their displacement by intensive farming of prawns, (which actually contributes much less to the economy) is another example of the novel possibilities which attend this new way of thinking about environmental value.88 If we look along our own coast line we can see that mangroves produce the conditions for human recreation by providing: • breeding grounds for some of the fisheries • lifecycle maintenance

• gene pool protection Mangroves Eastern Victoria. • moderation of extreme events.89 Image CfES, 2012. Mangroves are just one example of the pattern which connects in multiple and varied, even unorthodox, ways.

Mangroves Eastern Victoria. Image CfES, 2012.

37 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER Three - challenges

Chapter THREE - CHALLENGES

Strathbogie Koala. Image CfES, 2012.

38 Koalas and penguins, butterflies and bandicoots, orchids and eucalypts, The implications of fungi and frogs are all interactive components of the equation where climate change – productive environmental engineers are linked to one another. Some would say this is for our benefit. If species populations and their habitats are increased night and day further undermined this threatens the ‘ecosystem service provision’ which is temperatures, sea level essential for human survival. The challenges are considerable, and growing. rise, extreme events – CSIRO has reported the potentially disastrous impacts of climate change on the environment.90 The implications of climate change – increased have also all recently night and day temperatures, sea level rise, extreme events – have also been the subject of all recently been the subject of deeply concerning commentary from deeply concerning institutions as varied as the World Meteorological Organisation, the World Bank Group, the United Nations and international accounting firm Price commentary from Waterhouse Coopers.91 institutions as varied as Other critically impacting processes include: the World Meteorological • the inroads of invasive species Organisation, the World • population pressure Bank Group, the United • the increasing demand for food, timber and other resources. Nations and international A large body of science exists on each of the following commentaries accounting firm Price about climate change, fire, land use intensification and pest species. Waterhouse Coopers.91 This chapter is not intended to cover all that literature but simply pick up on the major issues.

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Worldwide 89% of 3.1 climate change observations from 75 Average temperatures are increasing across the globe. From 1956 to studies show significant 2005 temperatures increased at a rate nearly twice that for the period change in many physical 1906 to 1955.92 No other warm periods in the past millennium match or exceed the post-1950 warming as observed in Australia.93 and biological systems. Since 1990, changes to global temperatures have closely followed the mid-range of projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change whilst sea levels have tracked at the upper limit of projections.94 Current climate change projections may actually underestimate the extent of change which we should anticipate. Worldwide 89% of observations from 75 studies show significant change in many physical and biological systems. This is consistent with the direction of change expected as a response to climate change. Scientists are concerned that changes in terrestrial systems will deliver earlier spring events and shift the range of associated species poleward and upward.95 CSIRO’s very recent study of marine systems is illustrative.96 Complete loss of some Victorian habitats is, according to some analysis, a distinct possibility.97 Under climate change projections biodiversity will be critically impacted by 2100.98 In Climate Change Victoria: the science, our people and our state of play we model changes for Victoria by the year 2050. The incursion of the desert climate into the north west, expansion of the warm and dry grasslands climate zone around the Geelong area, and the shift of zones across the face of the state, will impact biodiversity in multiple and complex ways. Victorian research points to a range of climate change impacts. Earlier flowering of some alpine species99 and the invasion of higher altitude grassland communities by indigenous snow gums have already been documented.100 Organisms will shift their seasonal timing as has been witnessed with the common brown butterfly.101 Changes to phenology – nature’s calendar – can severely disrupt food webs by altering competition between species and by shifting the intersections of predator-prey relationships.102

40 Changes like this can have significant consequences for ecosystem Extreme and acute function, reproduction success and reduced adult survival. The climate conditions, as complexity of these interactions in the light of climate change, where there will be winners and losers is explored in our commentary on, distinct from grinding amongst other things, the Little Penguin in our paper Climate Change changes protracted Victoria: the science, our people and our state of play. over time, present a Extreme and acute climate conditions, as distinct from grinding changes protracted over time, present a particular challenge for biodiversity and particular challenge ecosystem ‘services’. Extreme temperatures and drawn out drought for biodiversity and conditions are both expected to increase under climate change realities, ecosystem ‘services’. potentially having severe effects on flora and fauna.103 Crops and livestock as well as native species will be impacted.104 Changes in the distribution of species are difficult to predict and outcomes will be complex. Winners and losers will populate our altered landscapes and seascapes105 but reseachers tell us we can expect the future distribution of Victoria’s flora and fauna to be greatly effected as some species become restricted in their distribution and others extend their range.106 Areas which are exposed to severe climate shifts may struggle to deal with significant localised extinctions. Pest plants and animals are also expected to change their distribution in response to climate change, increasing the pressure on native species.

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At worst they will be 3.2 Fire disastrous and if that is With climate change will come an elevated risk to biodiversity through the case, this will have increased frequency and extent of bushfires. irredeemable impacts on Managed burning regimes, undertaken principally to reduce the significant the delicate balance of human risk from bushfire impacts, will need to be implemented in such a manner as not to unnecessarily compound these risks to biodiversity. biodiversity upon which Ongoing assessment and critiques of managed burning regimes we rely for the provision in response to the 2009 Victorian Royal Commission attest to the of ecosystem services. complexity of the issues associated with controlled burning regimes.107

Fire – the Victorian context Australian ecosystems have been managed at the local scale by fire since the late Holocene. Changes in charcoal composition over the past 120,000 years depend on the particular environment.108 Changes in the frequency of burning practices since European settlement have promoted different vegetation associations. Management responses which involve planned burns will continually release small nutrient bursts without reference to the local vegetation and climatic cycle.109 Changes such as this may prove to be, at best, inappropriate. At worst they will be disastrous and if that is the case, this will have irredeemable impacts on the delicate balance of biodiversity upon which we rely for the provision of ecosystem services.

Eucalypt regeneration after fire, Kinglake. Image CfES, 2011.

42 Changing fire regimes affect biodiversity directly and indirectly. For example, protective sites for birds and small mammals may only develop in mature trees that have not experienced fire for several decades.110 A study of the interaction of cypress – Callitris – and gum trees – Eucalypts – in burning regimes illustrates the intensely complicated relationships – the webs of connectivity – which will be impacted by a change of fire regimes in our unique landscapes.111

Case study: Interdependence of species, the bistable equilibrium of Callitris (cypress)and Eucalypt response to fire.112 | A single set of environmental conditions can sometimes support more than one floral community. Open woodland may be dominated by stands of eucalypts or a dense stand of cypress – Callitris. Patches dominated by each ecosystem or floristic state are stable or resilient over long periods of time. They rarely ‘switch’ to any other state. Differences of state or ecosystem are caused by ‘feedbacks’ between the vegetation and the environment. Each state alters the environment in a way that promotes its own existence and disadvantages its competitors. It has been found that if we modify vegetation and fuel structure, patches of fire-sensitive Callitris reduce potential fire intensity which in turn reduces Callitris mortality. The species works to advantage itself. However, this feedback loop is insufficient to ensure the survival of Callitris under extreme fire-weather conditions as they are highly flammable. This is because stands regenerate from seed held in the canopy of burnt trees that fall to the ground. After intense burning, stands remain vulnerable to future fires, unless and until trees are able to grow large enough to modify fuel levels and reduce potential flammability. So, small isolated Callitris growing in the midst of eucalypts are more likely to die as a function of experiencing more intense fires. Their loss impacts the bird and insect life in the environment in which they have previously thrived.

Eucalypt tree hollow. The Callitris/Eucalypt case study not only highlights ecosystem resilience, Image CfES, 2011. but also illustrates how an adaptive cycle can produce various feedback mechanisms and varied responses.113 Beyond the impacts of introduced burning practices, the projected increased fire frequency and fire intensity associated with climate change is expected to upset the alternative stable states of, for instance, the Callitris/Eucalypt mosaic.114

43 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER Three - challenges

Smith, Daniel. “Inferno” oil on canvas. Metro Gallery.

The time scale for a From studies undertaken over time we know that some Victorian ecosystems with single vegetation communities have an adaptive cycle resilient response requires related to fire. infrequent burning, Fire sensitive Eucalyptus regnans – the stately mountain ash – regenerate between 20 years (for the from seed after fire. Resultant communities comprise species that tree to reach maturity) are adapted to fire, with seeds reliant on fire to break dormancy and seedlings responding quickly to increased nutrients, as a function of and 400 years (the tree’s the ‘ash bed effect’. The time scale for a resilient response requires mature lifespan). infrequent burning, between 20 years (for the tree to reach maturity) and 400 years (the tree’s mature lifespan). Eighty (80) years is considered the optimal time for silvicultural harvest practices of this native timber.

44 Warby Ranges north east Victoria post fire. Image CfES, 2011.

Illustrating the multiplicity and complicated interactions of a changed Such a landscape fire regime, beyond just damaging ‘the bush’, such change could will therefore retain adversely impact: greater resilience. • business and employment – the timber harvest regime and the industry and people which rely upon it • environment – the ecosystem of which it is a component and integral part • ecosystem services – for instance, the water catchments in which the species grows and upon which people rely. These ecosystem services are also potentially impacted in yet undisclosed ways. By way of comparison, a western Victorian grassland ecosystem will produce fuel for – and regenerate after – fires over much shorter intervals. Such a landscape will therefore retain greater resilience.

45 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER Three - challenges

The challenge therefore Increasing risk and consequences of bushfires lies in fully identifying As climate change leads to ever higher Fire Danger Index conditions and also the increasing likelihood of natural ignition,115 there will be a growing assets of value (life, need for deeper public understanding of where and when the greatest property, primary impacts from fires may occur. This is especially pressing as urban zones production, water, expand into the bush and increasing numbers of people are likely to find themselves exposed to fire. ecosystem health) and The final report of the Bushfires Royal Commission Implementation incorporating these into Monitor (BRCIM) advocated that “the State reconsider the planned an appropriate burning rolling target of five % as the primary outcome”.116 risk framework for This reinforces expert opinion that state-wide targets should be the guiding management. sum of evidence based regional targets, aligned with local objectives of risk reduction that are clearly defined in terms of asset protection or ecological function.117 The challenge therefore lies in fully identifying assets of value (life, property, primary production, water, ecosystem health) and incorporating these into an appropriate risk framework for guiding management. DSE has begun this crucial work and will be including ecological and biodiversity values in future state-wide risk assessments.

Fire risk identification The DSE has developed tools incorporating likely impact factors such as fire intensity or potential community loses which will be helpful if fire risks to the public are to be adequately addressed and planned for as the climate changes. The Future Fire Management Project has provided recommendations for examining the outcomes of managed fire regimes. As part of its work assessing fire risks in Victoria, DSE has developed the bushfire characterisation model Phoenix-Rapidfire. This can be used to model the location of areas at greatest risk from code-red level bushfires, assuming either a particular management approach or that there is no fire management in place. This work provides guidance for public planning.

46 Assessing impacts of fire management on Altered burning regimes, biodiversity which we expect to Assessing the likely responses of ecosystems to fire management is be driven by climate a complex task. Our ability to plan appropriate fire regimes hinges on improving our knowledge of: change, have the • mechanistic responses of plants and animals to fire regimes potential to severely • how species are affected by the spatial and temporal sequences impact biodiversity of fires and ecosystem function • how other ecological processes (predation, invasive species) interact and services. with fire responses.119 The Future Fire Management Project has identified a range of landscape scale impacts metrics that are used with Phoenix. These describe burnt areas, vegetation growth and species abundance. Although further research is still needed to validate model outcomes, this work is providing crucial insights about managing for several objectives. These insights will be important when involving communities in setting priorities for risk reduction. Schemes of this nature are also key to the process of moving beyond purely responsive management of fire impacts towards rigorous testing of management strategies under a range of conditions and building capacity to engage in adaptive management. Research of metrics and models are intended to inform decision makers but will not provide a “correct” solution for managing fire regimes.

Fire and the future climate Altered burning regimes, which we expect to be driven by climate change, have the potential to severely impact biodiversity and ecosystem function and services. Sensitive land management practices, applied with knowledge of fire intervals that are appropriate for each system, can act to mitigate these impacts and maximise conservation efforts over the long-term. Savannah burning regimes in the north of Australia provide an illustration of the level of care and organisation which can be taken for better environmental outcomes. As the climate changes, public and private land managers will need to be or become aware of the appropriate intervals for burning across their enterprises. In the private domain landowners will have to consider developing new farming regimes, as has been the case in cropping where no-till farming developed in response to drought conditions.120 Managing for climate change impacts and responding proactively to possibilities becomes particularly challenging in agricultural landscapes where remnant vegetated or re-vegetated areas occur close to property and where management will be focused on minimizing fire risk if controlled burning is conducted appropriately.121

47 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER Three - challenges

No till farming landscapes, Wimmera. 3.3 Land use intensification Image CfES, 2011. Population growth and settlement impacts, attended by intensification of land use practices, have proved to be key drivers of biodiversity loss in Victoria and elsewhere.122 Past attempts at remediation and the introduction of policies promoting the concept of ‘net vegetation gain’ have attracted much attention but, ultimately, struggled to deliver better environmental outcomes.123 Land use intensification has promoted spectacular increases in food production124 but, contemporaneously, there is no doubt it has also promoted habitat fragmentation across our landscapes.125 The intensification of Victorian agriculture highlights the changing relationships between agricultural producers and the ecosystems from which livelihoods are derived.126 In extreme cases our land use practices have threatened landscapes and the ecosystem services they provide, producing a situation where ecosystems are unable to return to pre-existing states.127 Based on ecological theory, it is suggested that levels of connectivity in a landscape could be directly linked with levels of cover of native vegetation; connectivity begins to be most impaired once 30% of the original cover of native vegetation is removed.128

48 European agricultural monocultures which are based on species that A long term scenario, evolved on fertile soils formed after the last glaciations are unsuitable one which the for many ancient Australian soils. farming community Land clearing (often, historically, state-sponsored and sanctioned),129 associated with: cultivation for the planting of crops, grazing by hard and scientists and hooved stock, the alteration of the country’s hydrology and has promoted administrators are still a situation where traditional native grasslands and plains landscapes have lost stability and resilience in the search for higher productivity or through actively working to acclimation of naturalised alien species.130 avoid, could, in the Abrupt changes to ecosystems such as these have resulted in a hard loss worst case, be a new of stability and threats to biodiversity.131 environmental stable The continued intensification of agricultural landscapes effected by the state of salt pans. adoption of, and perceived need for, industrialised farming, impacts the interdependencies and complexity of environmental and ecological processes.132 A long term scenario, one which the farming community and scientists and administrators are still actively working to avoid, could, in the worst case, be a new environmental stable state of salt pans. Paradoxically and reflecting the complexity of the situation we find ourselves in, our salinity problem has been lessened because of the recent dry years. Wet years, which we all celebrate, threaten to raise water tables and re- establish it as a problem to be addressed.133 More subtle examples of profound changes taking place include the continued acidification of soils due to increased nitrogenous-fixing clovers which are encouraged by phosphorus fertilisers. The situation in Western Australia, accepting its soil types differ from Victoria’s, provides the most graphic demonstration of this problem, where it is understood ‘soil acidity affects two-thirds of Western Australia’s wheat belt and costs the farming community in excess of $70 million annually through lost production’.134 Soil acidification decreases the bio-availability of nutrients, increases the concentration of toxic elements and, in extreme cases, can affect soil structure making soils more susceptible to erosion. We know that native grasslands, our fragile and subtle biodiversity and ecosystem services hot spots, cannot recolonise areas fertilised in this way.135 Profoundly changing environmental regimes to monocultures of exotic ground- stories such as Phalaris also adversely impacts ecosystems. Monocultures of non-native, high productivity species such as Phalaris will not support the same level of biodiversity as mixed native grasslands, and monocultures such as this, depleting species richness and ecological processes, will also act as barriers to re-establishing native species. Research into the impact of landscape design on potential conservation activities – particularly where more intensively managed agricultural landscapes are compatible with biodiversity outcomes – is being undertaken in Victoria by CSIRO136 and groups such as the Lower Murray Landscape Futures.137

49 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER Three - challenges

| Dust Busting Croppers – we can innovate and change Victorian grain growers have demonstrated how far farming systems have come in thirty years. Iconic images of wind blown Wimmera and Mallee soils darkening the sky above Melbourne in 1983 are a far cry from the current situation. Despite low rainfall during the 2012 cropping season – in the lowest 20-30% of all years on record and equal to the rainfall in 1983 – crops generally produced fair to average yields (1.5 – 2.5 tonnes per ha in the Wimmera-Mallee) with minimal erosion. What has changed to make crop production systems better and more resilient? Many things, starting with conservation farming practices. Use of conservation farming practices has been increasing ever since the devastating combination of drought and soil loss of 1983. Farmer groups, in conjunction with Victorian government agronomists, introduced conservation farming practices. Conservation farming practices enable retention of crop residues to protect the soil from erosion, and retention of water and nutrients whilst managing issues such as weeds and equipment capabilities. The result is that where wind erosion is seen today it is generally in isolated paddocks without crop cover. Retaining crop residues improves soil function by increasing its ability to store water and retain nutrients, enabling the next crops to use them. Information disseminated about trials undertaken with new crop varieties gives farmers confidence that these will grow using conservation farming methods and encourages them to sow many of their crops under lower risk conditions. Timely control of summer weeds preserves summer rainfall for the following crop, and prevents nutrients being used by weeds. Integrated management of weeds and pests prevents the need for frequent removal of crop residue protecting the soil from erosion risk and the crop from damage and competition for resources.

Paddock scale erosion. Image CfES, 2012. 50 Synergy between conservation tillage practices combined with modern herbicides has allowed cropping farmers to sow a larger | proportion of their crops either early or on time. This has great productivity and environmental benefit, particularly in years with low spring rainfall. This system also allows farmers to gain greater efficiencies of scale to offset against declining terms of trade. Work by Department of Primary Industries (DPI) in measuring and promoting conservation farming practices in northwest Victoria reveal that the proportion of paddocks under conservation management nearly doubled from around 44% in 1996 to over 82% in 2009. The monitoring of soil management practices allows DPI to better target efforts to work with farming groups to protect soil. The map of soil management after summer (see below) illustrates paddocks which have been cleared of crop residue, and the risk level for wind erosion of the local soil type. This map assists DPI and its farming network partners to better prioritise engagement with farmers and advisors about soil health by identifying areas of significant soil management risk and high risk soil types. Areas of bare and high risk soil in the northwestern Wimmera are of higher priority than those in the southwest which are of moderate to low soil erosion risk. Communicating activities focussing on the benefits of crop residue retention has involved some novel approaches. New tools developed by DPI for working with farmers to protect and maintain soil health demonstrate that retained crop residues reduce erosion and also trap airborne soils and nutrients from distant sources. The erosion fan rig enables farmers and agronomists to

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AR Figure 8: Wimmera Cropland Management Transect Autumn 2011 Survey. Source Department of Primary Industries. 51 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER Three - challenges

Our historical practices Innovation in farming practices continues to be reflected in the DPI Science Awards. This year, 2013, Rick and Jenny Robertson received have threatened the Hugh McKay DPI Partnership Award for the work they have done surrounding remnant in Sustainable Grazing on Saline Lands and Evergraze ‘improving their vegetation as a function stewardship of natural resources’. Additionally, the Samuel Wadham DPI Practice Change Award was presented to the Native Pasture of the imposition of Management Project Team whose work elevates native grasses isolation on populations. from ‘poor cousin’ status, promoting the restoration of ‘marginal and unproductive environments using perennial native grasses’. Accepting commitment to improved practices, the farming practices which we brought with us when we colonised this country which provided food and fibre for an exponentially growing population also worked to deplete biodiversity across scales, and unintentionally promoted the colonisation of introduced and invasive species. Our historical practices have threatened surrounding remnant vegetation as a function of the isolation on populations. Arguably we have plotted a course where the absence of coherent environmental systems and or remnants means it is increasingly difficult to maintain biodiversity in the landscape and to retain ecosystem services more broadly.138 There is scope to address this issue on privately held agricultural landscapes by connectivity and other projects.

52 Doubling farm food & fibre production, boosting biodiversity, reducing greenhouse emissions and improving water quality | – is it possible? – Jigsaw Farms helps answer the future farming puzzle. Which is more important for the future – meeting growing global food demands, or improving our performance on managing biodiversity, greenhouse emissions and water quality? While the experts battle this out, some innovative farmers in Victoria’s southwest have discovered a pathway that shows us how positive environmental outcomes do not have to be at the expense of increasing on-farm productivity and food production. Jigsaw Farms is a 4900 hectare farming enterprise owned and managed by Mark Wootton and Eve Kantor. Over the past 13 years Mark and Eve have been striving to build a farming system that brings all the pieces of the sustainable agriculture puzzle together – hence the name Jigsaw Farms. Mark says “We run the farm as a company, but with a family farming model. There are six staff with their young families all involved in Jigsaw Farms. By consolidating farming into a system there is a greater access to capital and agribusiness knowledge and innovation while the social and landscape values of farming are also maintained.”

Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability visits Jigsaw Farms. Image CfES, 2011. 53 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER Three - challenges

As owner-managers, Mark and Eve planned to combine a high | productivity sheep and cattle operation while protecting remnant vegetation and revegetating Jigsaw waterways on a landscape scale. They are aiming for 25% being planted with permanent revegetation and farm forestry shelter plantings or protecting wetlands – and they are well on the way, having planted their millionth tree. Their new forests are a mix of permanent indigenous revegetation and riparian protection (along creeks) and farm forestry plantings in corridor belts, managed on a cycle of harvest and replant. Using farm planning principles, the Jigsaw revegetation program has been focussed on the 25% of the farm’s less productive and degraded soils, which includes areas of salinity and shallow soils. At the same time, the agricultural production from the remaining 75% of the farm’s land has increased from 30,000 DSE (dry sheep equivalents) to 70,000 DSE over the past 13 years. According to Mark, “The increase has largely come about as a result of management and structural changes such as improving fertiliser rates, modern perennial pastures, fencing to land type, developing an extensive laneway system, expansion of a deep water storage and reticulation system and continual development of staff to understand the key profit drivers of professional grass growing.” All of the developments on Jigsaw Farms are done with concern for future sustainability, with Mark and Eve being passionate about tackling climate change. Mark can now claim that “I’ve estimated that the emission reductions (carbon absorbed) by our new forests while they are actively growing will outweigh all of the on-farm agricultural emissions, which is about 15,000 tonnes per year of CO2 equivalents.” As for local birdlife, local ornithologist Murray Gunn has conducted seasonal bird surveys at Jigsaw Farms since 1998 and has recorded an increase from 49 species to 155, with total number of birds across these species quadrupling. These figures are seen by Mark and Eve as an indicator of improved biodiversity and a vindication of Jigsaw’s connected wetlands and revegetation corridors. “The farmers I speak to are keen to explore practical and market driven solutions to climate change and not to focus on the negative. They realise that the world has an increasing demand for food and fibre. They also realise that we are moving at great speed in an increasingly carbon constrained world. The challenge is to meet this challenge now and to stop just talking about it,” Mark said. Mark and Eve are also confident that the carbon footprint of farming can be significantly reduced in the future while still maintaining the high levels of fibre and meat production. While many people ask if it’s possible to meet the future challenge of growing more food, reducing emissions and developing sustainable and profitable farms – Jigsaw Farms offers a key piece in solving that puzzle.

Eucalyptus Maculata, Jigsaw Farms. Image CfES, 2011.

54 3.4 invasive species Once the habitat of Ecosystem disturbance, and the consequent impacts on ecosystem natural predators is services, associated with settlement and production practices, often removed ‘population facilitates the colonisation of landscapes and habitats by invasive species. Colonisation by pest species arguably causes loss of biological explosions of pest diversity, even though cause and effect can be difficult to determine.139 species’ can colonise Our early ‘acclimatisation societies’ provided the first wave of invasive productive as well as colonisations, deliberately introducing blackberry and other species to alter reserved landscapes.143 the composition of pastures. The next generation of imports, which may include the introduction of potentially weedy species for the production of biomass to generate biofuels, could present the next risk to biodiversity.140 Invasive species are not confined to insects and weeds but also include animals which thrive on this sort of vegetation. Goats, deer and rabbits take advantage of altered landscapes but so do less obvious colonisers, such as exotic millipedes which have increased in abundance in response to pesticide usage.141 Over time research has generated a considerable literature on the issue of eradication of pest species and their impact on biodiversity and the ecosystem services which biodiversity provides142 but these studies are labour intensive, can be expensive and will take time. Introducing one pest to undermine another is tempting but must be resisted – the cane toad experience tells us that. Agriculture is also vulnerable to introduced species given its dependence upon the ecosystem services provided by biological diversity. Once the habitat of natural predators is removed ‘population explosions of pest species’ can colonise productive as well as reserved landscapes.143 As we showed in Climate Change Victoria: the science, our people and our state of play agriculture is vulnerable to climate change impacts and in such conditions some organisms and animals will thrive.

55 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER Three - challenges

DROUGHT BUSHFIRES HEATWAVES HIGHER AVERAGE TEMPERATURES INTENSE STORMS HIGHER CO2 CONCENTRATIONS

SEA LEVEL RISE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE Possible increase in crop and forestry Increased loss of yields when not limited forests and plantations by other climate to more frequent change impacts Relocation of bushfires Reduction in water agricultural industries resources available to more suitable areas for agriculture Increases in pests and Loss of ground cover disease reducing increasing erosion yields and raising and dust storms management costs

Decreased soil health limiting plant growth and productivity Reduction in crop yields Reduced pasture from hotter, drier growth limiting climate and more grazing opportunities Reduction in timber severe storms production from hotter, drier climate and more severe Reduction in storms livestock production from hotter, drier Less frequent frosts climate and more reducing the yield severe storms and quality of crops that require chilling Reduced freshwater for production inputs will impact on inshore habitats vital to many commercial marine species

Increased loss of property, crops and livestock to more frequent bushfires

Rising ocean acidification will impact on many commercial species

Migration or loss of marine species will Reduction in livestock affect the viability productivity and of current fisheries quality from increased heat stress

Impacts on seagrass beds and coastal habitats important recruitment sites for many commercial species

Range extensions of marine pests threatens fisheries such as Rock Lobster and Abalone

Reduction in groundwater resources available for agriculture

Figure 9: Impacts of Climate Change on Primary Production. Source Climate Change Victoria: the science, our people and our state of play. CfES developed infographic, 2012.

56 DROUGHT BUSHFIRES HEATWAVES HIGHER AVERAGE TEMPERATURES INTENSE STORMS HIGHER CO2 CONCENTRATIONS

Increased loss of property, crops and livestock to more frequent bushfires

Rising ocean acidification will impact on many commercial species

Migration or loss of marine species will Reduction in livestock affect the viability productivity and of current fisheries quality from increased heat stress

Impacts on seagrass beds and coastal habitats important recruitment sites for many commercial species

Range extensions of marine pests threatens fisheries such as Rock Lobster and Abalone

Reduction in groundwater resources available for agriculture

57 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER Three - challenges

3.5 summary Addressing each of these challenges to biodiversity, each of which will potentially compound earlier and ongoing problems, will require well organised, formal and informal, public and private interventions. Mainstreaming or entrenching programs will be a pivotal component of change. Programs like the Blackberry Task Force,144 Project Hindmarsh,145 the multiple and various revegetation projects supporting threatened bird and other populations,146 urban and rural Landcare,147 and a proliferation of other efforts attest to the interest that both farming communities and the public have in these matters.

http://www.vicblackberrytaskforce.com.au/publications/VBT_Report_2011-12.pdf

58 http://vnpa.org.au/page/bushwalking-and-activities/project-hindmarsh-planting-weekend-2012

59 FOUNDATION PAPER | TWO Land and Biodiversity Victoria: the science, our private land holders, incentives and connectivity | CHAPTER Three - challenges

http://www.platypus.org.au/

Benefits which accrue Benefits which accrue to the environment will also accrue to private to the environment will landowners engaged in agriculture. also accrue to private Regulatory regimes, monitoring efforts and management techniques have all been used in an effort to effect change, however, the landowners engaged shortcomings of these mechanisms if operating in isolation have been in agriculture. the subject of much critical comment over time. Commentaries come from a very wide spectrum, from environmental advocacy agencies like the Environmental Defender’s Office and legal specialists to audit agencies like the Victorian Auditor General.148 In the following section we examine these mechanisms and use that discussion to provide a launching pad for an examination of other, next generation techniques, such as how we can make use of incentives for private landowners.

60 Chapter Four - MECHANISMS FOR CHANGE, CULTURES OF COMPULSION AND CONNECTIVITY

As we move into an age impacted by the uncertainties and challenges Species destruction inherent under climate change scenarios we will need to find new was, for the most part, mechanisms for addressing the range of problems we confront. As we have suggested in the Water Foundation Paper Victoria: the science, our of little of no concern urban communities and our water futures instrumental efforts will need to under this regime. become more flexible whilst remaining robust and compelling. Notwithstanding a range of legislative provisions, such as the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the role of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (including the permitted vegetation clearing regulations and the State Planning Policy Framework), the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988, the Wildlife Act 1975 and various codes of practice for timber production and bushfire management on public land, a paradigm shift in collaborative practice will be needed as the present, first generation methods which we are using to address biodiversity loss appear to struggle with the extent of the task.

4.1 the role of regulation The Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act was introduced in 1988 and the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act at the Commonwealth level, only came into force in 1999. Much of our environmental protection (EPA) legislation was instituted as a result of the growing interest and concern about pollution in the 1970s and early 1980s and it fed off the anti-pollution work and trends in the USA. Early Australian legislation associated with land surveys, grants and patterns of use, drove clearing, rural drainage and channelling, interrupted stream flows and even required overstocking. Species destruction was, for the most part, of little of no concern under this regime. Tax concessions supported land use intensification. Licensing, leasing and free holding formed a ‘progressive’ land ownership hierarchy and improvements in legal tenure depended upon clearing, fencing and stocking regimes being met without any consideration of soil types, contours, ephemeral wetlands and the stressing of watercourses. The sheer unsustainable nature of this sort of farming drove many small holders off the land as they failed to make a living on landholdings which could not support our practices. It is this legally sanctioned legacy, together with other land use changes, which we now need to address. As we are launched into a world where climate change will alter landscapes irrevocably, and where uncertainty is the only certainty, we will need to consider our responses in a range of ways. A fundamental shift in emphasis – a paradigm shift – is required,149 even as we continue to enforce the legal protections which do exist. We will need to strive to improve enforcement. We will need to continue to investigate and sanction infringements, and we will need to publicly expose poor behaviour when it is unearthed.

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It is ‘simple’, because Regulating biodiversity conservation can appear to be both simple and it is deceptively easy to yet remain highly complicated. make directions about It is ‘simple’, because it is deceptively easy to make directions about land which are capable of being surveyed, surveilled and monitored. land which are capable It would appear to be relatively easy to delineate land and set it aside for of being surveyed, public purposes. For instance, we have witnessed reserve land gazettal in Victoria in recent times with the establishment of new parks along the surveilled and monitored. Goulburn River and at the Barmah.

Lower Goulburn National Park The Victorian Government created the Lower Goulburn National Park, along with other new and expanded parks, in June 2010 to protect and enhance the River Red Gum forests in Victoria.

Figure 10: Lower Goulburn National Park Source http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/315877/Park-note-Lower-Goulburn-National-Park.pdf

62 But, as we know ‘the map is not the territory’. The most difficult feature So, the simple exercise of expanding new parklands like the red gum National Park will always be of surveying the land the unification of the community, given the competing grazing, logging, and biodiversity conservation interests, all of which were subject to the will be complicated overlay of Aboriginal people’s aspirations. VEAC undertook a vast public because of the people- consultation process which resolved the red gum park land mass but had to work very hard to reconcile the level of public disputation.150 nature interaction. So, the simple exercise of surveying the land will be complicated because of the people-nature interaction. But it will also be complicated because the natural environment is complex and our ability to monitor its operations continues to be less than optimal. For example, the increased recording of Synemon plana (golden sun moth) highlights the fact that its status as ‘rare’ (it is a listed threatened species under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and a matter of national environmental significance protected under the Act) may, some suggest, be a reflection of our limited capacity to monitor effectively in the past.151

Golden Sun Moth Source http://museumvictoria.com.au/ melbournemuseum/discoverycentre/wild/victorian- environments/grasslands/golden-sun-moth/

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This sort of unevenness In other settings, however, ‘rare’ really does mean rare or endangered, suggests that legislative as monitoring has taken place over a small geographical scale and a long time, and been conducted by numerous vigilant scrutineers. For instance ‘listing’ efforts will be the observations made about Leadbeater possum numbers in extremely helpful for the Yellingbo region are rigorous, scrupulous and the data is alarming. managing some, but not all, Compounding this, absences may manifest in a reluctance to list invertebrate species due to a lack of records. This is a direct result biodiversity outcomes ... of problems of monitoring and resourcing.152 This sort of unevenness suggests that legislative ‘listing’ efforts will be extremely helpful for managing some, but not all, biodiversity outcomes (if conducted effectively). Consolidation of such efforts may eliminate some issues. In the light of this, overlaid by climate change and land use changes, we need to consider how, as the Victorian Government has done very recently in relation to invasive pests: ‘…our legislation has not maintained pace with the breadth and nature of change in the biosecurity sphere’.153 This is so, even as environmental law has transitioned from common law land law to a ‘command and control’ ethic.154 Of the ‘command and control’ it has been said: ‘… heroic assumptions [attend] … what may be accomplished’.155

Complexity A complex web of state and federal legislation as well as the administrative practices of various statutory bodies and government departments, underpinned by layers of policy mechanisms, forms the protections that cover Victoria’s flora and fauna and the regulation of Figure 11: noxious weeds and pests.156 Relevant legislation.

64 There is little doubt that the plethora of legislative instruments would As the localised be more efficient if streamlined, as is clearly recognised by the enforcement arm of announcement of the review of the invasive species regulatory regime. In the absence of alignment, legislative tools aimed at protecting the legal system, local complicated, dynamic ecosystems may actually, whatever the level of government needs to be application, have little chance of success. Further, beyond the problems associated with regulatory fragmentation, the actual capacity to resourced to seriously administer the raft of relevant legislation is uneven. and scrupulously undertake its biodiversity Responsibility – federal, state, local protection obligations. Biodiversity conservation is sanctioned by Commonwealth and Victorian state legislation, but local governments have a role to play subject to the Victorian Planning Provisions, Municipal Strategic Statements and Environmental Overlays, all of which produce infinitely variable outcomes across even abutting jurisdictions.157 In its Net Gain Guidelines VicRoads illustrates the layers of regulatory management as it adopts the mitigation hierarchy of avoid, mitigate and offset in respect of road alignment changes, reduction of median strips, forgoing pedestrian byways and the installation of guardrails. In VicRoads’ work the Planning and Environment Act 1987 is underscored in the Victorian Planning Provisions which is supported by the State Planning Policy Framework.158 Additionally, and as an example of how local government addresses these issues, the Shire of Yarra Ranges has a role to play in respect of some specific roadway planning permits.159 Exemptions are explicitly provided in respect of some extablished public roads and this is guided by the Road Management Act 2004. Additionally and over time Memoranda of Understanding have been developed with DSE. In 2010 one such MOU provided for the removal of a certain number of trees without permit but requiring ‘payments in lieu’ – this MOU has never been called into play.160 The Department of Transport also has two Mou’s with DSE, one to do with Road Safety Exemptions under Clause 52.17 of the VPPs and the other providing for offsets by VicRoads.161 As the localised enforcement arm of the legal system, local government needs to be resourced to seriously and scrupulously undertake its biodiversity protection obligations. In our Report on the variety of local government state of the environment reporting – Choices Choices – we recorded resourcing as a persistent issue for local government.162 The active and meaningful intervention by local government in biodiversity protection is discussed in the chapter on incentives, demonstrating the potential for inventive possibilities which do not seek to punish but rather encourage better outcomes. It is at least arguable that the protection of biodiversity, which provides each and every one of us with the ecosystem services upon which we all actively rely, ought to be funded in toto by either state of federal governments even if regulations are enforced by local government.

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For legislation to be Limitations effective it must be Federally the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation enforced and it is Act (1999) (EPBC Act) operates in alignment with state systems and agencies, introducing an oversight approval process in respect of most likely to act as a biodiversity.163 At the state level Victoria’s Biodiversity Strategy has set general deterrent if it is the strategic framework for the management of biodiversity and it is married to both the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988) (FFGA) and understood, simple the Planning and Environment Act (1987). and transparent. Studies of the FFGA have highlighted a number of limitations: • when attempts are made to apply its provisions to private land • in respect of administrative supervision • as to enforcement of management requirements.164 Conflictual positions can and do emerge, pitting land owners against the instruments which have been established to protect biodiversity, including but not exclusively related to ensuring the availability of refugia for rare and endangered species. The resolution of these issues is fraught. Much has been said about the limitations of ‘command and control’ mechanisms, operating as they do to deter and punish behaviour subsequent to deleterious actions, when biodiversity has already been lost.

Simplicity and certainty For legislation to be effective it must be enforced and it is most likely to act as a general deterrent if it is understood, simple and transparent. In an overarching manner regulatory supervision may promote norm diffusion and pressure, but this would appear to be less than effective in ensuring biodiversity protection. Legislative controls rely for their salience upon a level of certainty or some form of benchmark, as well as a capacity to prosecute for breach. Problems will arise in the use of coercive techniques as: • a function of legal interpretation • concerns about the ‘level of fault’ • the scope of offences • the standard of the evidence collected • the nature and understanding of the burden of proof • the privilege against self incrimination • the ‘extent of the powers of the regulatory authority’ which underpin the capacity to launch investigations. Each of these factors can prove to be problematic.165

66 Prosecutions, professional standards and In examining data practicalities made available on Even when a single government department has the primary role prosecutions it would of enforcement a regulatory regime may be difficult to police. The International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement seem that a total of has compiled a text which is used by its 3000 governments and 1192 offences were non-government agencies from 150 countries. Attesting to the level prosecuted in the years of concern and enforcement166 issues discussed include theories of compliance behaviour which, for effect, require a high probability 2007-2012. of apprehension; that responses be swift, certain and fair; and that punishment outweigh the benefit of non-compliance. The point is made that compliance and enforcement create both public and private value. DSE has 23 full time and 85 part time authorised officers in the regions with the power to launch prosecutions. In examining data made available on prosecutions it would seem that a total of 1192 offences were prosecuted in the years 2007-2012. In the records provided to us these fell into 8 categories – possessing protected wildlife; contravening a wildlife licence; marking, felling, damaging, killing a tree or plant; cutting forest produce without a licence; taking fish from a marine sanctuary; knowingly leaving a fire; lighting a fire contrary to regulations and acting without a licence or permit.

Category Major offence # of offences % of total Possess or control protected wildlife Wildlife 685 57% Contravene condition of wildlife licence – other Mark, fell, kill, damage tree or plant Cut forest produce in state forest without Flora 247 21% licence

Take fish etc from marine sanctuary Marine 107 9%

Knowingly leave fire without precautions to prevent spread Fire Light or maintain fire contrary to forests or 73 6% parks regulations

Act without licence or permit 80 7% 1 Misc Figure 12: Prosecutions 2007-2012. Data provided by DSE 2012. CfES developed infographic.

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Neither is it immediately In the interests of transparency about the policing of biodiversity offending it is important to be able to analyse this data. However, on possible to determine the face of it this is not possible without studying individual matters how ‘organised’ to determine levels of culpability, track the species at risk, trace the offending might be or places most vulnerable and then target these areas. Neither is it immediately possible to determine how ‘organised’ offending might be really understand the or really understand the extent of offending. Although the Director of extent of offending. Public Prosecutions has an oversight role it is not clear what training or supervision is required or offered and it is also not clear what discretions might be exercised, and in what circumstances or to what end this might be done in exercising prosecutorial judgements. From a native vegetation perspective, DSE have acknowledged in the recent Future directions for native vegetation in Victoria – Review of Victoria’s native vegetation permitted clearing regulations Consultation paper (September 2012) that there is a need to clarify policy and improve processes. The proposed pathway to achieving this outcome will be through: • improving proponents’ understanding of their obligations to comply with the regulations • making the permit application process simpler, more streamlined and less costly • increasing options and availability of offsets through new offsetting rules and offset market reform. There is an undertaking to “work with local governments to develop a cost benefit based compliance and enforcement strategy that ensures the obligations of the permitted clearing regulations are being met.”167 We need to develop a range of processes which are conducive to the development of consistency or the development of a biodiversity conservation jurisprudence the like of which we can see evolving in NSW where the Land and Environment Court is a court of record and where precedent appears to provide some guidance to prosecutorial practice. The development of a formal, rigorous ‘jurisprudence’, as distinct from the pursuit of ‘largely, one off investigations’,168 is important to engender confidence, oversight and accountability. This will not occur where clarity and consistency are absent.169 As we find in other criminal and quasi- criminal jurisdictions the effectiveness of the system will depend upon the consistency of a prosecution culture and the imposition of effective penalty provisions to drive both general and specific deterrence. The Australian National Audit Office in its publication,Better Practice Guide. Administering Regulation (2007)170 puts it this way: ‘the quality of regulatory administration is a major determinant of success in achieving policy objectives and minimizing the administrative compliance costs imposed on regulated entities, taxpayers and the Australian community by the regulatory regime’.171

68 The ‘offence data’ outlined above makes it difficult to form a view about The formulation of a the nature and extent of offending, the underlying attributes of the functional, rigorous, offending and the gravity and persistence of problems. Descriptors used for offending promote the comparison of a wide range of offending within prosecutorial ethos certain typologies.172 This makes it difficult to plan or form strategy. for the protection of At the other end of the spectrum, away from the Magistrates Court, in the environment is an the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, the small number of cases associated with vegetation clearance permits is unlikely to provide a important foundation reliable indication of patterns of civil infractions or levels of interest in stone upon which to rest biodiversity clearance generally. biodiversity protection. The formulation of a functional, rigorous, prosecutorial ethos for the protection of the environment is an important foundation stone upon which to rest biodiversity protection. A ‘culture of compulsion’ and consistency is necessary and its establishment will require leadership, resourcing, organisation, feedback through data collection, training, alignment and integration of all efforts, across departments and agencies.

Figure 13: Review by VCAT of decisions by responsible authortity to refuse a permit to clear native vegetation. Source EDO Report A Framework for Action? Implementation and enforcement of Victoria’s native vegetation clearance controls.

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This view is supported 4.2 Beyond command and control – by the work of the regulatory support for conservation Victorian Competition In the light of these issues, but without relinquishing a commitment to and Efficiency improving the operations of the law, it is important to see what else is Commission (VCEC) being proffered. which has suggested In a very recent Harvard Business Review working paper Toffel, Short that administrative and Oullet, studying the various operations of regulation, codes of conduct and adherence to standards, suggest that the best outcomes reform, married to will be achieved by the maintenance of ‘multiple, overlapping and legislative reform, may reinforcing governance systems’.173 deliver more efficient This view is supported by the work of the Victorian Competition and systems of protection Efficiency Commission (VCEC) which has suggested that administrative reform, married to legislative reform, may deliver more efficient systems and control.174 of protection and control.174 The administration of an all-of-landscape approach could be streamlined by the amalgamation of authorities, better co-ordination of government authorities, and improved interaction between government and community groups. Alternative mechanisms than command and control and tribunal adjudication can be found in a number of legislative instruments which are aimed at conserving environments on private land in perpetuity.175 These include – Planning and Environment Act 1987 Sec. 173; Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987, Sec. 69 and Sec. 75, Victorian Conservation Trust Act 1972 Sec. 3a including amendment by Royal Botanic Gardens and Victorian Conservation Trust (Amendment) Act 1995, No. 38/1995, Sec. 2 (b). Third parties may legally broker deals which lock up land for carbon credits and offsets (see the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987, Section 69). Legal protection is also afforded conservation efforts through Trust for Nature Covenants and both land tax and rate relief provide financial incentives. We will return to the utility of incentives, as the alternative to directory approaches, later in the paper. At the private landowner level, VCEC suggests that incentives delivered in a timely and targeted manner are necessary to support revegetation efforts.176

70 4.3 administrative monitoring Marine species have been consistently under- Improved environmental monitoring has been recommended in reports across jurisdictions as a means of assisting us to understand what is reported, and given actually happening in respect of biodiversity protection and loss and to the impact of climate underscore actions which need to be taken.177 change on the oceans Complexity, responsibility, simplicity, limitations and the potential loss of A lack of consistent, co-ordinated and repeated data sets has always been food sources this, like regarded as a major limitation to assessing the extent and depletion of all such absences, biological diversity and in advancing our understanding of ecosystem health. is concerning.178 Problems with access to suitable data include: • a lack of long-term and consistent data sets, even though there are now decades of environmental reporting • uncertainty about indicators and shifts in indicator selection, impeding focused data collection • researchers’ focus on the collection of data for project-specific purposes rather than for strategic or integrated environmental assessment (often as a function of a research grant or narrow funding requirements). Marine species have been consistently under-reported, and given the impact of climate change on the oceans and the potential loss of food sources this, like all such absences, is concerning.178 CSIRO’s recent report on marine species and climate change cites the data which has been collected by scientists and members of the public and the intention is to expand the collection of data by the public, log it and use it to understand what is happening in warming seas.179 This is regarded as a pressing issue. Key providers of ecosystem services, such as invertebrates which reflect the ‘majority of biodiversity and respond quickly to change’,180 and fungi,181 continue to be poorly represented in our data sets. The extent of our lack of knowledge has been demonstrated by the amount of ‘unknowns’ found as a function of community and science partnerships in just two of many bush blitzes held in Victoria at Lake Condah182 and Ned’s Corner.183 Interestingly 60% of 114,500 known species of invertebrates are represented in our country but only 3% have associated genetic data in Australia. Well conceived and integrated data sets and long term ecological monitoring will produce a greater understanding of the distribution of species, the extent of biodiversity and its depletion. This will provide a better understanding of how to target protection mechanisms. But, this, like the regulatory domain requires a ‘culture of compulsion’ and again leadership, organisation, feedback, training, resources and alignment and integration will be required.

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For example 90% of plant Beyond monitoring? – the digital age species, with 25% having Recently, recognising the need for improved monitoring, a commitment has been made to resourcing the recording of local on data bases. associated genetic data, biota are listed in the Atlas of In Victoria Natureprint has been developed – Living Australia.186 ‘… to integrate and analyse our best statewide information about biodiversity values, threatening processes and ecosystem function at the landscape scale even though decision making will still rely upon other factors … feasibility, cost, resources, community attitudes, emerging environmental markets, government policy tools (e.g. regulation, price- based incentives, education and information) … landholder values, world markets and commodity prices, and land value’.184 Natureprint may become a very useful instrument as it gains in technical capacity. People on the ground are critical of its present capacity as it lacks fine property scale detail and it is not informed by loca knowledge or ‘ground truthing’.185 Other efforts are being made to inform the discussion nationally. For example 90% of plant species, with 25% having associated genetic data, are listed in the Atlas of Living Australia (http://www.ala.org.au).186 Illustrating technological advances and applications, satellite imaging is being used to record changes in biota across the country.187

The possibilities are ever expanding and beyond these data collection and replication exercises, a monitoring framework, the Terrestrical Ecological Research Network (TERN)188 has been set up to facilitate the study of sites in productive landscapes. The framework continues to undergo streamlining. The Australian Supersite Network seeks to build a ‘nationally consistent network of multidisciplinary and intensive ecosystem observations’.189 As some specific discrete Victorian sites have been monitored for several decades TERN is keen to incorporate such data sets. Plots studied in this way, can, over time, provide early warning signals of biodiversity loss and, consequently, impacts upon ecosystem service provision. Traits important in the resilience of species to climate change and other stressors may also be identified and monitored by a more rigorous resort to data collection and reporting. Potential loss of connectivity may be telegraphed and insights provided.

72 Beyond monitoring – science-based biodiversity The need for science- information based biodiversity At the recent 11th Conference of Parties (COP 11) to the Convention information derived on Biological Diversity (CBD, Hyderabad, October, 2012), there was progress towards the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the from good quality Aichi biodiversity targets.190 data is critical. The Strategic Plan is a reminder that data and monitoring is significant but only one aspect of the data-information-knowledge-wisdom continuum. The utility of data is as important as its collection and accuracy. The need for science-based biodiversity information derived from good quality data is critical. Data and monitoring forms the basis of science-based biodiversity information that enables practitioners to: • address the barriers to change and good management • undertake knowledge gap analysis • undertake activities that support technology transfer and scientific and technological cooperation • develop and review targets • update biodiversity strategies, action plans and indicators.

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Even as the refrain is 4.4 shortcomings repeated – ‘if we can’t measure it we can’t Insinuating genetics Even as the refrain is repeated – ‘if we can’t measure it we can’t manage manage it’- we also know it’- we also know that monitoring alone still has its shortcomings. The that monitoring alone still complications associated with ensuring the role of genetics is understood has its shortcomings. and insinuated into data sets presents one issue. To be most effective monitoring should include genetic markers191 as well as direct surveys – the simple number crunching. The importance of this has played out in the successful protection of the mountain pygmy possum.

| Case study: Threatened species approach, Burramys possums

Mountaon Pygmy Possum. Image courtesy of Fredy Mercay.

Examples of climate affecting threatened species often involve flagship species such as the pygmy possum –Burramys parvus.192 This small marsupial is the only known hibernating marsupial. Plainly it is very rare, has specific, and interesting attributes, and study may help us to better understand some climate change scenarios in the Alps and more broadly.

74 The genetic crash of the Mt Buller population prompted efforts to restore genetic variability though “genetic rescue”.

The possum spends winter hibernating under snow in boulder fields, and it has a disjunct distribution in Victoria and NSW Alps. | Genetic data indicate that a small Mt. Buller population has been separated for some time from Bogong High Plain and Mt. Hotham populations. It is also separated from populations found in the Kosciuszko area. Genetic data, collected over decades, indicated a dramatic drop in genetic diversity in the Mt Buller population. This was attributed to a drop in population numbers which was in turn most likely due to ski field developments.193 Loss of genetic diversity threatens the long term viability of isolated populations because of potential problems associated with inbreeding and a loss of adaptive capacity, and this is all the more concerning at a time when environments are changing rapidly. The genetic crash of the Mt Buller population prompted efforts to restore genetic variability though “genetic rescue”. Genetically distinct individuals from Mt. Hotham were introduced to the Mt Buller population. There are very promising signs that the process of ‘genetic rescue’ through translocation will assist the survival of the species and restore the health of the Mt Buller population and complement the captive breeding program undertaken by DSE and Zoos Victoria. This particular project may serve as a model in building resilience for other threatened species persisting as disjunct populations.194 Such a process may extend to including vertebrates that have dwindled to small remnants or protected populations as a consequence of development.

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The issue of scale in climate change settings – Ecological Vegetation Classes As we contend with the complexity of climate change and its intersection with other and compounding issues we may also struggle to understand and report on the changes we are witnessing (monitoring) even though we use systems which have stood us in good stead in a pre-climate change age. For instance, current administrative management of Victorian natural resources, through Catchment Management Authorities, depends heavily upon and applies the Ecological Vegetation Classes (EVC) framework. Some researchers suggest that the EVC framework may serve us less well as we try to deal with complex systems butting up against climate change realities. It is suggested that this tested methodology is not adequately infused with theoretical and practical understandings of biodiversity as both complex and dynamic. This methodology is still extremely useful to the public and scientists and, like regulatory initiatives which struggle to address the need to protect biodiversity, it should be retained, deployed, revisited and as we advance into the 21st century, reviewed.

Figure 14: Ecological vegetation classes Yellingbo.

76 As this highly sophisticated critique of EVCs develops we need to maintain the resources we have as the EVC framework is at the | very least a clear guide to what is said to presently comprise the attributes of landscapes. The Cardinia Environment Coalition Inc in its Biolinks Project Action Plan: Linking Habitats across the Western Port Catchment Central Region provides a case in point.195 In a substantial appendix (III) to the Plan the Coalition relies upon the EVC classification system to describe and understand the landscape in this way: • grassy forest in the highlands is vulnerable and comprises only 42.7% of the area • plains grassland/plains grassy woodland mosaic is endangered and comprises 6.4% • whilst blackthorn scrub constitutes 83.5% • out on the Gippsland plain the Plan discloses that mangrove shrubland constitutes 92.8% of the landscape.

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So, it would seem we need In considering the usefulness of the EVC framework in the 21st century, as we know, interactions between organisms and their environment work at lower a ‘culture of connectivity’ levels of organization. Consequently, management which is heavily reliant or as well as a ‘culture of primarily dependent upon Regional Catchment Strategies at the landscape compulsion’ as we adjust level may not fully appreciate fine and intensely local biological perspectives. to deal with biodiversity The use of Ecological Vegetation Classes as our classificatory tool may actually, in a highly mobile, non steady-state world, lack the sophistication stressors and climate needed for local management efforts because it operates at the broad- change realities. based management scale. Biodiversity operates at a number of hierarchal levels including at the level of individual species and down to the level of genes and these intimate relationships may become more unstable and complicated as climate change impacts. The EVC framework may simply not be agile enough to continue to be as useful as it has been – it is a 20th century tool which we will continue to apply in a 21st century world where change is the only certainty. Organisational structures may compound this issue. To best address biodiversity requirements management needs to respond on the appropriate scale. This is complicated as a function of the interplay of EVC and CMA boundaries.

| The role of socio-ecological systems To take one example of the layers of organisational and other complexity, the Goulburn Broken CMA crosses eight bioregions with 3 CMAs and covers a total of 15 very different local government areas. These are covered either wholly or partly within and across the Victorian Riverina bioregion. This level of complexity is increasingly recognised as an issue for careful thought, planning and management, by proactive CMAs. The GBCMA is working with contiguous catchment management organisations and developing active community partnerships to address this. It has been suggested that an understanding of the environmental context in a catchment may be equally well reflected by socio-ecological systems as EVCs.196

Beyond these considerations, vegetation communities influence the distribution of many animal species but EVCs work across public and private land without discrimination and management techniques and their impacts may be vastly different. It is here that a commitment to connectivity becomes a really important consideration. So, it would seem we need a ‘culture of connectivity’ as well as a ‘culture of compulsion’ as we adjust to deal with biodiversity stressors and climate change realities.

78 Climate change risks For animals Climate change imposes a layer of management complexity which may distribution changes not be adequately reflected in the EVC classification modelling.197 are also uncertain Climate models and past reconstructions of climate effects on species because these depend distribution emphasize how communities are fluid. Typically some species are more prone to exposure under some regional climate change on biotic interactions projections, making an area unsuitable for particular keystone species. and levels of tolerance Unfortunately, habitat suitability assessments which study factors like climate to stressful conditions. and soils provide a partial prediction of the risks that species face.198 Other factors that suggest the potential for extinction of plant species include their dispersal ability and life history traits which affect their recovery from fire. In international settings where vegetation communities have been monitored for more than 100 years under changing climatic conditions, there is evidence for dramatic changes in the composition of communities, with local extinction linked to specific plant traits.199 For animals distribution changes are also uncertain because these depend on biotic interactions and levels of tolerance to stressful conditions. Physiological data may provide some indications of likely changes, as has been found with the local extinctions of lizards.200 By way of contrast, some species are likely to successfully counter climate change through plasticity or intense flexibility, or through evolutionary change. Monitoring designed to capture changes in population size, experimental programs to assess physiological and demographic susceptibility, and modelling with validated outcomes are needed to make sensible predictions about sensitive or resilient groups. Monitoring is no longer, if it ever was, a matter of conducting observations and undertaking surveys. It will not be enough to measure what we see to effectively develop programs which arrest decline. In Victoria (and Australia) we are only just starting to develop understandings of changes to vegetation under climate change scenarios. As we know, environmental communities are dynamic and attended by high levels of uncertainty as to impacts and responsiveness.201 Our current vegetation classification system will struggle to meet our current needs if we place heavy reliance upon, or ‘privilege’ the EVC methodology to the exclusion of other ways of conceiving of landscape, connectivity and complexity.

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Ultimately an 4.5 resilience expected high degree Ultimately an expected high degree of unpredictability suggests that of unpredictability prescient and responsive management could well promote resilience. suggests that prescient This sort of management response will probably need to be highly localised and it could be achieved in a variety of ways. We will need: and responsive • conservation efforts directed at maintaining and re-establishing management could well refuges promote resilience. • efforts to maintain and establish areas where there are gradients • genetic translocations • to build large and interconnected landscape units – corridors and biolinks. If management can assist in building resilience, a commitment to things other than legislation and EVC classification might make this possible. This brings us to an examination of other innovative possibilities and the role of the private landowner, independent of, or collaborating with, government.

80 4.6 a role for the public and the We all enjoy and are private landowner dependent upon the benefits of eco-system We will need to consider a range of proactive, structured methods of further invoking the interest of the community, given the challenges services and we we are now encountering.202 Incentives and inducements will be one should not expect only method. Payments for ecosystem services will need to be enhanced, well landowners to fund monitored and evaluated to deal with the extent of the issues, and the potential level of interest. the level of restoration We all enjoy and are dependent upon the benefits of eco-system services required to secure them. and we should not expect only landowners to fund the level of restoration required to secure them. We will continue to see voluntary, unfunded, personal commitment to environmental conservation. The Friends of Beware Reef, cited in my foundation paper Climate Change Victoria: the science, our people and our state of play, will always simply enjoy their individual and group work. Those who show such commitment in their leisure time will often be comfortable with their reward being an occasional celebration of their efforts. This is universal. Citizen science, unfunded and enthusiastic, has a real role to play and we can find examples of such collaborations everywhere.

Internationally, the Belfast City Council’s Local Biodiversity Action Plan has a program ‘Recording plants and wildlife’ to encourage | community involvement in local biodiversity monitoring.203 Similarly, citizen science efforts in France204 and other international settings are increasingly explored for their insights and practical applications.205 The recent CSIRO report on the impacts of climate change on marine life along the east coast of Australia relied heavily upon the commitment of the public for the collection of data.

At an organisational level, simultaneously, with the rise of citizen or ‘community science’, there has been an increase in collective private- public fora to support monitoring and management of environmental processes and outcomes. For instance, the Goulbourn Broken Catchment Management Authority, building on its interest in the pivotal role in conservation of socio- ecological systems, has formed the Land and Biodiversity Information Forum (LaBIF) to bring together community groups such as Trust for Nature, Landcare, state departments and agencies and local government. Specialist groups concerned about the Superb Parrot, Winton Wetlands, Regent Honeyeater and the Euroa Arboretum also play a role in the increased effort to get to better outcomes in this forum.

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LaBIF provides a site for information sharing and joint efforts, maximising access to information and funding opportunities.206 The role of networks and socio-ecological systems thinking is increasingly and more widely understood as a potent player in the reclamation of ecosystems and ecological communities and ecosystem service provision.207 As an indication of the growing sophistication and interest in monitoring environmental processes and the intensification of demand for real-time data to inform local decision making of land owners and community activists, the Wimmera Development Association has made a submission to BOM to enable farmers to address the current absence of real time weather data for the region. The utility of this is obvious for farmers but its availability to others involved in planning various environmental activities, understanding ecological processes and articulating the importance of specific, responsive programs is also apparent.208

Striped legless lizard. Butterfly at Strathbogie. Image courtesy of DSE. Image CfES, 2012.

82 4.7 summary Increasingly, we know we will need Each of the mechanisms discussed here is an essential component of the raft of instruments we need to utilise to protect and enhance our rich every methodology and fragile biodiversity. We cannot do without regulation, monitoring and and we will need to tools which make that possible no matter how critical we may be of these mechanisms. Increasingly, we know we will need every methodology and inspire sophisticated we will need to inspire sophisticated and entrepreneurial responses and and entrepreneurial collaborations across terrain. responses and In the next section we start the discussion about incentives. collaborations across terrain.

Spotted Tree Frog. Pelican. Image courtesy of Glen Johnson, 2003. Image CfES, 2010.

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Chapter FIVE - METHODS OF MEETING CHALLENGES ON PRIVATE LAND

It is here where we can ‘Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and still 209 consider other newer retain its basic function and structure.’ systems of generating It is increasingly clear that we need to cultivate resilience to deal with uncertainty. We need to do this in the public domain and across private interest in biodiversity land holdings. needs and the value of the Resilient systems rarely reflect simplistic slow linear responses. Breached ecosystem services which thresholds can tip stable systems into chaos. Once this has occurred, disturbed systems may or may not return to their original state. Our biodiversity provides. understanding of resilience becomes even more complicated when we consider that more than one stable state (bi-stable) is possible. Understanding the resilience attributes of a system depends upon our objectives, the time scale of our interest, the character and magnitude of disturbances, the underlying structure of the system and the feasibility of control measures.210 Victorian ecosystems within the National Reserve System211 appear to be relatively resilient, although invasive plants and herbivores are a significant challenge and vulnerability assessments may/can remain incomplete making our picture of their resilience partial. In extending the reserve system and assuming responsibility for increasing protected areas, the Victorian Government adheres to guidelines as per the United Nations Environment Programme which encourages an understanding of resilience as a foundation stone. However, resilience is much harder to establish in landscapes removed from the National Reserve System. It is here where we can consider other newer systems of generating interest in biodiversity needs and the value of the ecosystem services which biodiversity provides. The multiple benefits of encouraging this level and scale of commitment to the protection of biodiversity can be difficult to tabulate as these benefits are difficult to determine. However, they include: generating cultural and social cohesion, attainment of better health outcomes, and other public goods.212

84 5.1 private land efforts – inventiveness Communities have, both over time and more Over recent decades, important steps have been taken to improve management to attain conservation objectives in ecosystems outside recently, been funded reserves.213 We have moved from an understanding of the utility of to take action. ‘islands’ of biodiversity, to cultivation of the roles of individuals and the public and private domains, and the active generation of ‘networks’ of both people and the places they care about.214 Community development and other scholarship tells us that conservation of biodiversity will be most effectively advanced through dialogue between policy makers and the private landowners who often retain grounded/situated and long term personal and local knowledge. Local, embedded knowledge can assist in developing an understanding of the ‘strengths and limitations’ of policy levers, driving real and relevant change on the ground.215

Communities – state and federal program grants Communities have, both over time and more recently, been funded to take action. The state government program Communities for Nature is funded by grants. Not market based,216 the program aims to support practical local action in the environment by providing community groups with small grants – up to $10,000 – and large grants, delivering funding supports from $10,000 to $150,000. This grants program dispurses $20 million over 4 years. It aims to: • support practical community action in the environment • create visible and lasting improvement • foster greater enjoyment of the natural environment • strengthen partnerships and participation by equipping communities with the ability, skills and knowledge to take action safely and with the capacity to optimise resources. Hundreds of community proposals have received funding for innovative and local initiatives.217

The projects range is vast: Yea Wetland Weed Whackers, to the Rhyll Mirror Bush project, St Mary’s Primary School at Lancefield | revegetation project, La Trobe University’s biodiversity trail, the Upper Wimmera catchment project to save the platypus, the Natimuk preschool ‘Red Tailed Black Cockies for Kids’ project which embraces early learning principles for conservation218 and the Melbourne Girls College biolinks project to defragment the habitat along the Yarra River.

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The Biodiversity Fund Federal funding is also made available for voluntary environment sustainability and heritage organisations, and community action grants has recently continued are awarded annually for Caring for Our Country.219 The Biodiversity to provide much needed Fund has recently continued to provide much needed impetus for this impetus for this work. work. Non-government groups have been highly active, investigating philanthropic funds and submitting for government grants to protect or manage remnant vegetation under the national Natural Heritage Trust and Caring for our Country programs. Rather remarkably, even in Australia where the philanthropic sector is still embryonic as a function of population numbers and institutional and other commitments, non-government conservation organisations are the ‘fastest growing sector’ in supporting the burgeoning National Reserve System.220 Private contributions are estimated to exceed $20m and these contributions have been used to both purchase land and fund research. The land expanse supported is 1.8 m ha.221

Private landowners – privately funded covenanting An examination of the work of Trust for Nature illustrates the level of commitment to supporting the efforts of private landowners in effecting change on properties.

Land Protection Covenants: voluntary and targeted Services Agreements: land management and stewardship Land protection registers and legal instruments Post protection and Landowner relationships and advice stewardship services Facilitator of community linkages Monitoring, payment and reporting systems Commercial services Eco-market services and biodiversity market Voluntary and compulsory environmental offsets development Conservation land transactions e.g. Revolving Fund Landscape and Landowner, community engagement and partnership services education Project development and advice Landscape scale partnerships Conservation reserves Acquisition through donations, gifts, grants Education, research and demonstration sites Management services Management and Human resources, finance and infrastructure corporate services capability Conservation science, research and education Fundraising, including donor and bequest management

86 Trust for Nature’s innovations include the establishment and management The Revolving Fund of a Revolving Fund which has secured over 5000 ha of high attracts donor interest conservation value land by purchasing and on-selling land over many years. The Revolving Fund attracts donor interest and appears to be and appears to be of enduring appeal to a small but growing pool of philanthropists. of enduring appeal to a While the Marsden Jacobs reports into the Tasmanian Forest small but growing pool Conservation Fund and the Environmental Stewardship Program222 comment upon the limitations of current Revolving Fund operations of philanthropists. within property markets (‘limited by supply and demand in the existing property market’), they nevertheless highlight its cost efficiency-value amongst a suite of tools making a discrete but discernible contribution to program outcomes.

Demonstration sites and processes It is clear that a variety of tools are and can be used to promote biodiversity protections on private holdings and they involve partnerships with government funding agencies,223 with non-government organisations, community and environmental groups and individuals with clearly circumscribed interests. These tools include plans, action plans and market based instruments which are designed to involve individuals in conservation management in their farming workplaces and on their amenity blocks. Such tools, strategies and plans are important connectivity building blocks when strategically deployed. The potential is broad as these sort of land stewardship programs cross jurisdictions and can be delivered at federal and state and local levels. We return to a discussion of the more generalised conservation potential for these instruments later in this section when discussing biolinks and corridor connectivity. Demonstration projects involving the purchase of commercial farming land in order to protect and enhance a relatively small percentage of land for critical habitat and ecosystem services are also contributing enclaves and linkages to biodiversity reserves both intentionally and unintentionally. Were such projects targeted at nationally significant landscapes prior to on-selling as commercial farming land, it is suggested that we could be attaining highly focussed, even if relatively circumscribed biodiversity benefits. Examples of private public and NGO partnerships for change can be found in a range of private enterprise settings including consultancies like Kilter for VicSuper and organisations like Bush Heritage Australia.224

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Farming people relate 5.2 other private conservation their efforts over the past potential on ‘productive landscapes’ 25 years when talking Cultivation of biodiversity in private landscapes, often described as about the viability of agriculturally ‘productive’ landscapes,225 is another burgeoning field Landcare. Many people across a range of Victorian landscapes from the woodlands of Edenhope report starting work on to the dairies of Yarram. sustainability plans long This is not a completely new phenomenon, even though land clearing practices and intensive farming have historically typified our early land before any subsidisation use practices and had a disastrous impact over time.226 was available. Farming people relate their efforts over the past 25 years when talking about the viability of Landcare. Many people report starting work on sustainability plans long before any subsidisation was available. Prior to the broadcasting of payments for ecosystem services (sometimes simply called PES) many farming families undertook a range of personalised, highly localised and relatively effective solutions227 practising stewardship for more sustainable outcomes and seeing themselves as environmental stakeholders.228 That level of interest continues to be volunteered and harnessed. Often individual efforts are subsumed into a broad understanding of the work of ‘local community groups’ and not independently conceived as the work of farming families. This community and the farmlands they manage have a fundamental and important role to play in arresting decline of biodiversity and in promoting change.

Around Dookie, a highly productive agricultural area, the Dookie | Biolinks Program draws on the energies of farming families. Locals are working on protecting creek lines and habitat for the bush stone curlew, the diamond firetail, brolga, Jacky Winter, grey crowned babbler, brown tree creeper and squirrel gliders. They care about retention of the Dookie daisy, the rock correa, western silver wattle and remnant grassy white box woodland.229 Similar projects are evolving across the country.

The Bushstone Curlew. Image CfES, 2011.

88 5.3 the levers for change on private land Many landowners do not holdings – and a preference hierarchy seek a transition to ‘paid professionalism’ but Notwithstanding a number of features which seem to impact the adoption or non-adoption of conservation efforts230 it would seem some do. The picture is that amongst private landholders, a ‘preference hierarchy’ of levers for complicated by many sustainable practices and biodiversity protection operates: personal and economic ‘… the strongest support [exists] for voluntary and education-based and other factors. tools, [followed by] market-based instruments, [and] command-and- control regulation, [as the] measure of ‘last resort’.231 This hierarchy lends itself to better outcomes. Extension of biodiversity protections by private landholders would be promoted by the recognition of landowner stewardship. A greater receptivity to a ‘green agenda’ would flow if it was seen to be ‘fair and equitable’, administratively ‘light’ (often referred to as the reduction of green tape),232 accessible, and responsive to locality. Overt and ‘serious’ commitment to long term policy and program outcomes by government would also elevate interest.233 Many landowners do not seek a transition to ‘paid professionalism’ but some do. The picture is complicated by many personal and economic and other factors. Whatever the position taken, the payment of incentives will always be of interest, particularly in times of greater economic marginalisation or in circumstances where drought affects and changes land use practices.234

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With an estimated 300 5.4 payments for Ecosystem Services schemes operating – the world of incentives across the world PES Payments for ecosystem services (PES) have undergone scrutiny235 are becoming a more and criticisms. routine feature Some challenge the environmental effectiveness of Payments of of biodiversity Ecosystem Services, and Market Based Instruments more broadly.236 conservation efforts.242 The Marsden Jacobs review of the Commonwealth Environmental Stewardship Project (ESP) found that although overall the Project was a ‘well-designed, well run, effective and efficient approach to enhancing conservation on private land’, critical lapses are found in the public-good market failure and information gaps.237 Predominantly, the concerns are about the privileging of economic outcomes in payment development and the perceived privatisation of the natural environment. Guardian journalist George Monbiot is one of many who are particularly critical of the shifts in language associated with Payments for Ecosystem Services. He disdains the fact that ‘nature’ has become ‘natural capital’, ‘natural processes’ have become ‘ecosystem services’, ‘ecosystems’ are now ‘green infrastructure’, and ‘biodiversity and habitats’ are now ‘asset classes’ within an ‘ecosystem market’.238 Noting the depths of such criticism it is important to observe that lessons have been learnt and research conducted about the effectiveness of such payment schemes239 and the most efficient methods of targeting best outcomes.240 The OECD, ‘mainstreaming’ the market, has published a guide to the ‘key criteria’ which should inform best practice.241 Incentives operate in the following fashion. Landowners and managers are paid to enter into agreements to protect remnant ecosystems. These agreements include requirements to manage pressures on biodiversity in those ecosystems. Incentives provide scope to address the absence of market-based signals to protect biodiversity by creating markets for conservation actions on private land. As 62% of Victoria is in the hands of private landowners the potential is vast. In other jurisdictions the list of private lands under such schemes is extensive. Carbon sequestration, catchment stability, eco-tourism, and in NSW, land subject to the biobank scheme are all some form of ecosystem incentive schemes. With an estimated 300 schemes operating across the world PES are becoming a more routine feature of biodiversity conservation efforts.242 At a recent OECD workshop in Montreal (May 2012) it was concluded that one of the three most effective methods of scaling up biodiversity conservation was ‘by mainstreaming biodiversity in the production and consumption landscape (e.g. green markets; offsets)’.243

90 There seems to be little doubt that some incentives have great potential Cape York provides to encourage private conservation activity. The Victorian Competition a number of and Efficiency Commission reported that: useful examples.249 ‘...improved environmental outcomes can be achieved through... greater use of incentive-based arrangements’.244 South and Central American approaches are innovative and ever expanding.245 Costa Rica, said to have started the movement to payments for environmental services in 1997,246 provides an example of a system for accounting and investing in carbon.247 Payments for Ecosystem Services are used in the management of UK rivers. Water: Restoring River Catchment Function Using Payments for Ecosystem Services (2012) provides practical examples of the range of private incentive schemes.248 Cape York provides a number of useful examples.249

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These e-market 5.5 some Victorian issues with market mechanisms have been initiatives developed over time to Victorian programs which include EcoMarkets add to the tapestry promote the conditions of possible incentives for biodiversity conservation.250 Market-based which will balance approaches have been designed to reward landholders for producing ecosystem health, ecosystem services like clean water and biodiversity. These e-market mechanisms have been developed over time to promote the conditions agricultural productivity, which will balance ecosystem health, agricultural productivity, climate climate change risks change risks and opportunities.251 Their application has proved useful. and opportunities.251

92 BushTender BushTender involves auctions where landowners competitively tender for contracts to improve the management of existing areas of native vegetation on private land. Bids succeed with the offer of the best value for money. Periodical payments are made for environmentally appropriate actions outlined in the contract. BushTender in tandem with the Commonwealth Environmental Stewardship Program has produced some interesting results. In the box gum grassy woodland and Red Tailed Cockatoo Habitat programs 29 agreements were concluded across 40 sites, covering 1488 ha and involving four CMAs. Nine land managers agreed to covenants in perpetuity. Monitoring of the sites showed compliance rates at 95%.252

EcoTender EcoTender expanded Bush Tender to include multiple environmental benefits. Native vegetation, river and estuary health are all part of the evaluation.

CarbonTender CarbonTender develops carbon offset contracts where landholders revegetate areas with permanent native vegetation the aim being to ‘absorb’ carbon dioxide and provide carbon sinks that restore local ecosystems.253

WetlandsTender This tender program is relatively new. It has been rolled out in some instances with great speed. For one example see our Many Publics report on the work which has been done in the Wimmera at Lake Clear.

BushBroker BushBroker is a service for matching buyers and sellers of native vegetation offsets. Native vegetation offsets are required under the native vegetation permitted clearing regulations. The objective of these regulations is ‘no-net-loss’. BushBroker promotes brokerage of native vegetation credits which can be generated and traded. Credits are generated by protection and better management of remnant bushland, placing freehold land into conservation reserves, revegetating previously cleared land or by protecting scattered trees to encourage natural regeneration. Credits are bought by those who are required by legislation to offset clearing in one area with the purchase of vegetation credits in another location according to ‘like for like’ rules. Organisations which have used this program include VicRoads.

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Many economists are Whilst we have incorporated BushBroker in the table above it is a somewhat more complicated structure than the ‘tender’ arrangements. The BushBroker now using the discipline program has struggled to gain traction for a number of reasons.254 The costs to consider ‘real world’ to enter the market are said to be prohibitive; there are time delays in gaining issues and assist authorisation and funding; and complaints are made about red tape. There is also a lack of coordination between local and state government regarding governments to develop the monitoring of sites. The lack of a central database to enable advertising better policy. to potential buyers is reflected in the low level of trades in the scheme over time. The policy complexity requiring ‘like for like’ requires verification255 and economies of scale, scope and preferential bidding for single lots and packages have presented issues. The strategic complexity associated with the convergence of buyer and seller and the simulation of negotiations are also issues. ‘Making markets’ has complicated the project in subtle ways, shifting responsibilities and understandings.256 It has been suggested that a program such as this, being a ‘market for contracts’ is novel and challenging. The Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission’s detailed discussion on BushBroker supports these claims: ‘Submissions and discussions with participants indicated that BushBroker has helped, but that securing offsets through BushBroker continues to be time consuming and costly. The concern is that the ‘market’ for offsets is too thin, resulting in uncertainty about the ‘price’ of vegetation credits, which in turn, discourages landholders from supplying potential offsets until they can be sure of market values. The thinness of the market may also reflect that offset buyers may require a certain quantity and type of vegetation, but a single offset provider may be unable to supply the total offsets required, or may be unwilling to supply a portion of their offset due to the risk that they will have a small area left over which becomes harder to sell. This is referred to as the ‘offset package problem’ and its effect is to increase the time and transaction costs involved in finding offsets’.257 More recently, DSE has echoed these comments in a consultation paper on native vegetation policy, Future Directions for Native Vegetation in Victoria: ‘… the offset market is subject to high transaction costs, volatile prices and an inability to meet demands for some offsets’.258 Innovative approaches to the development of policy tools including market based instruments like BushBroker might be provided through the discipline of design economics. Alvin Roth, this year’s co-winner of the Nobel prize in economics, with Lloyd Shapley, has been celebrated for his work on market design. Theory and practice has been married to match markets and outcomes – in one instance in relation to kidney exchange programs where “matching” difficulties resulted in wasted opportunities.259 Many economists are now using the discipline to consider ‘real world’ issues and assist governments to develop better policy. Environmental policy is one area of endeavour where clever, efficient, market design may play a significant role in delivering better outcomes.

94 5.6 take up – interest and application Again, however, the – a culture of change terrain is complex and for every offer there Again, however, the terrain is complex and for every offer there is a mechanism for acceptance. The BushBroker program has to be is a mechanism distinguished from others which deliver on the ground outcomes for acceptance. for owners of property who never expect any additional commercial benefits than improvements to their land, fencing and assistance with weed eradication. The people of the Bass Coast Shire form one community actively embracing the application of incentives for biodiversity conservation. The Bass Coast Landcare Network has been engaged in a Native Vegetation eXchange (NVX) Trial, a collaboration between DSE, DTF and the California Institute of Technology designed to pilot ground-breaking market design for the trading of vegetation offsets. The trial has now reached its conclusion and is being evaluated.260 Additionally the Bass Coast area has a very high uptake of EcoTender with the use of EnSym (see above).

http://www.basscoastlandcare.org.au/

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Bass Coast Shire Council provides a rates rebate programme, which | rewards land owners who undertake revegetation on their property.261 A non-exclusive list of other shires offering a range of biodiversity protection measures include the Maroondah City Council,262 Hindmarsh and Nillumbik Shire Councils in Victoria,263 the Shire of Busselton in WA which provides a publicly accessible Incentive Summary264 and, again interstate, the Hobart City Council.265 Local government is working actively to get private land owners involved in biodiversity conservation, in their local areas, about places they care about and with immediate effect, both financial and practical.266

Taking one catchment as an illustration, a plethora of possible services and incentives is available from a range of sources.

Goulburn Broken Catchment Private Landowning Biodiversity Incentives (2011/12)

Agency Incentive Description/ District/ Contact Status

Indigenous Goulburn Fencing contracting and environmental works. Available Works Crew Broken CMA

Plains Wetlands Landholders nominate a price to protect and Expressions Tender 2011 improve their wetlands. of Interest

Waterways Waterway and wetland health projects including Available Grants fencing, revegetation, weeds and bank stability.

Sand Ridge Fencing Protection and revegetation of Sand Available Woodlands Ridge sites Mega Murray River area.

Whroo CMN Various programs and activities in Whroo CMN Available now area (including fox baiting).

Broken Boosey Various programs and activities in Broken Boosey Available now CMN Conservation Management Network area.

Ray Thomas Regent Remnant protection and revegetation. Lurg District. Available Honeyeater project

Superb Parrot Superb Parrot Remnant protection and revegetation. Available now Group Project

Conservation Trust For Permanent protection of remnant vegetation Available now Covenants267 Nature through Conservation Covenants.

96 Continued

Agency Incentive Description/ District/ Contact Status

Offset brokering Vegetation offset program. Available now

Catchment wide Local Council Different incentives for different councils. Available now funding268

Various group Landcare Contact local Landcare group Various incentives

Whole Farm DPI Nationally accredited Whole Farm Planning Various Planning Course Course: Land Use Capability, Farm Water Supply, Soils, Pest Plant & Animal, & Biodiversity.

Land Steep hill country and remnant woodland Available now Management fencing to protect soil and to encourage native Incentive pasture; soil erosion control works; revegetation Program enhancement planting.

Environmental Fencing remnant vegetation and revegetation in Available now and Tree Shepparton Irrigation Region. Growing Incentives

Whole Farm Whole Farm plans or Farm Irrigation Efficiency Available now Planning, Farm Programs in Shepparton Irrigation Region. Water

Bush Returns DSE Landholders nominate a price to protect and Expressions Woodland improve their remnant woodland vegetation of Interest Tender 2011

Land for Wildlife Voluntary conservation program throughout the Advice and Catchment. Information

Threatened Targeted threatened flora, fauna and communities Advice and species work throughout the Catchment. Information conservation and management

Bush Broker Vegetation offset program. Available

An interstate comparison of incentives programs in NSW suggests that this level of government intervention in support of private action is not unusual.269 Potential participants are offered details with respect to: • the responsible authority • the conservation mechanism and whether it is legally binding • incentives and tax concessions • the level of support provided.

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We are watching 5.7 summary with interest as we Beyond these incentives there are also a range of other instruments determine better ways which we should start to consider. Tourism payments have been to value ecosystem extracted in Latin America270 and in Costa Rica the Monteverde Conservation League has contracted with the HydroElectric Company services and streamline to pay for ecosystem services.271 A water based finance mechanism has and mainstream the also been developed in Ecuador.272 process of attaining It is possible to blend a number of initiatives: contracts, regulation, market better outcomes. based instruments, and conservation efforts like biolinks and corridors at different scales, as all draw the public and the private domains together. Connectivity corridors might in fact provide focal points for otherwise dispersed funding models by concentrating the land interest of a number of participants.273 It would seem we have a recognised need and a receptive group of private landowners and we need to consider how we generate critical mass, both across the landscape and amongst the public. Clearly there is international, national, state and local interest in generating better environmental outcomes by means of payments for ecosystem services. We are watching with interest as we determine better ways to value ecosystem services and streamline and mainstream the process of attaining better outcomes. In the next section we examine the canvas upon which we are working.

98 Chapter SIX - BIOLINKS, CORRIDORS AND THE PRIVATE LAND HOLDER: SHELTER AND CO-BENEFITS

As we contemplate the fact that the provision of ecosystem services is a We can do this in many concern for every one of us, we need to consider how everybody benefits geographical settings – from remediation and how those with the capacity to deliver on private holdings should be provided with incentives to ensure this happens. close to the metropolis If there is any residual resistance to private land owners improving their and further out. land ‘at the expense of the public purse’ by means of incentives we need to overcome it. We need to accelerate and mainstream the provision of incentives as we know that private land is a highly significant contributor to biodiversity protection, particularly if we can generate landscape scale applications of biolinks and connectivity corridors. We can do this in many geographical settings – close to the metropolis and further out. For instance there is a very active biolinks action group across private land in the Werribee River corridor.

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6.1 case Study Werribee River Biolink Action Plan Project The project illustrates that private land is a key link to success.

West of Melbourne, the Werribee River Biolink Action Plan Project | aims to protect and restore the natural links along the Werribee River to improve connectivity, ecosystem processes and resilience. The success of the project is heavily dependent on the involvement and effort of a range of stakeholders, in particular, private land owners. The Werribee River is a large river system to the west of Melbourne. It completes a journey of approximately 110 kilometres and its catchment covers an area of approximately 2,700 square kilometres.274 The river cuts through a modified and fragmented landscape, but there remains significant flora and fauna in riparian, grassland, woodland and forest environments. The Werribee River Biolink Action Plan Project sets out to protect the remaining flora and fauna and reconnect the isolated patches of habitat.275 It will establish the Werribee River as a regional biolink that provides substantial environmental, social and economic benefits. The project began in May 2011 with the signing of a funding arrangement between the Department of Sustainability and Environment and LeadWest which manages the project.276 In October 2012, LeadWest commissioned the preparation of an action plan that identifies key environmental assets and the physical works required to meet priorities for connectivity along the aquatic, riparian and terrestrial corridor. 53 priority works programs are documented across 16 locations and 35 assets, ranging from planning scheme amendments to weed control programs.277 For the vision of the biolink to be realised the efforts of private land owners and the community organisations that engage and support them, such as Landcare, need to be continually cultivated and supported.278 Much of the Werribee River riparian zone is private land and patches of remnant vegetation on private land form buffer areas around the central biolink and core assets (parks and reserves).279 The Parwan Gorge Habitat Corridor, near Melton, contains biodiversity of regional significance. Koalas frequently move through the gorge and it is home to a number of native birds including the Peregrine Falcon, Nankeen Night Heron and Diamond Firetail (listed as threatened under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988).280

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0 3 6 12 Kellogg, Brown & Root Pty Ltd TITLE km Leadwest ¯ Werribee River Biolink Action Plan 1:200,000@A3 SOURCE: DSE, Melbourne Water, Melton Kellogg, Brown & Root Pty Ltd ABN 91 007 660 317 Waterway Condition and Select Projects Shire, Moorabool Shire & Wyndham City Level 3 441 St Kilda Road Melbourne Vic 3004 FILE LOCATION COORDINATE SYSTEM DATE Figure 1.1 PROJECT No. MEN107 Prepared: EM, Checked: JS O:\G&I\GIS\MEN107_Werribee_Biolink\Data_Control\Maps\MXD\Issued GDA 94 ZONE 55 04/04/2012 MAP No. MEN107-G-MAP-010-B REVISION B

O:\G&I\GIS\MEN107_Werribee_Biolink\Data_Control\Maps\MXD\Issued\MEN107-G-MAP-010-B.mxd

Figure 15: Werribee River biolink. Source Kellogg Brown & Root Pty Ltd (2012) Werribee River Biolink Action Plan – Volume 1. Prepared for LeadWest: 3-6 Waterway Condition and Sealed Projects.

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Grant incentives from Melbourne Water, Caring for Country and Port | Phillip and Western Port CMA for weed removal, revegetation and fence construction on private land on the southern side of the gorge have been essential to improving habitat. The northern side of the river is less floristically diverse, having suffered neglect without the benefit of private land ownership.281 The image below illustrates this.

Figure 16: Parwan Gorge. Source Kellogg Brown & Root Pty Ltd (2012) Werribee River Biolink Action Plan – Volume 1. Prepared for LeadWest: 5-32 Original image courtesy of

Parwan

Landcare Group

The importance of the Parwan Landcare Group and Pinkerton Landcare and Environment Group needs to be acknowledged. Like their counterparts across Victoria, the group and its members, engage with their peers and neighbours to encourage biodiversity works as well as detail the incentives available to undertake them.

102 Other examples are the Ryans Lane and Chapmans Road corridors. The project is creating two wildlife corridors by natural regeneration | (or ‘passive regeneration’ as described by Lund) 282 and planting native vegetation. The area totals 22 ha and the intention is to increase biodiversity and allow for wildlife movement. The Toolern Vale Landcare Group has 22 private landholders involved in the project and is working with its own funds and those matched by various state and local government sources. The Parwon Gorge and Ryan Lane examples typify the arrangement throughout the Werribee Biolink Project area. We see a complex mix of funding streams and agency involvement but ultimately success is dependant on incentives to support the efforts of private landholders and community organisations which function as a key intermediary and creator of private landowner peer and support networks.

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Linkages will, however, 6.2 Broadcasting incentives to get to continue to operate at a landscape scale biolinks and corridors number of scales Having observed the willingness of private landholders to assume and situations. responsibility for biodiversity protection historically, often in the absence of funding or with short term and non-renewable or periodic government subsidies, the potential uptake for incentives to underpin connectivity corridors across scales is considerable. ‘Connectivity conservation’ – the biolink movement – is a key emerging approach encouraging strategic management of protected areas and other land uses within a ‘landscape matrix’.283 Such approaches are not ‘intuitive’ but clearly practical.284 They offer flexibility and promote resilience, allowing biodiversity and biodiversity managers to cope with future uncertainties. The debate about the effectiveness of biodiversity linkage projects would appear to be over and the weight of the scholarship now suggests that perceived problems do not negate benefits to biodiversity, connectivity and the generation of ecosystem services.285 Biolinks or broad-scale biodiversity corridors have become a key part of strategies aimed at increasing biodiversity resilience in productive landscapes. They are effective in establishing areas for re-connection of biodiversity.286 Linkages will, however, continue to operate at a number of scales and situations.

Some will involve small areas where, it is estimated, vegetation | cover of 20% of the landscape can provide refuge for birds.287 It is estimated that a koala requires 2 ha, a powerful owl pair a range of 800-1000 ha and that 21 brown antechinus can inhabit 1 ha.288 Birds Australia studied birds on 330 farm sites in temperate woodlands in the south east of Australia and report that for every 10% increase in tree cover native bird density improves by 7% and non native bird density decreases by 21%.289 Bennett and others have over time demonstrated the benefits of road side verges for many species, detailing specific observations.290

Biodiversity linkages, biolinks and corridors, will fit into a number of scenarios – they might be core areas, stepping stones (within 500- 1000 metres of each other for best effect for birds),291 and or linear and landscape corridors (provided by unused roads and creek and river frontages) and nodes.

104 Regardless of size an effective biolink will need some or all of the To have the greatest following attributes: effect some argue • it should have greater mass than its perimeter to reduce exposure biodiversity linkage to predation, weed invasion and chemical drift projects should be as • at best, an effective biolink will be typified by habitat quality and diversity and have extensive vegetation cover extensive as possible and • to maximise possibilities it would be best practice if the areas were operate at landscape of high biodiversity importance scale, such as the Great • to reduce alienation of surrounding landowners it would also Eastern Range biolink. be best practice if the bundle or mosaic of land, from core to stepping stones, was designed to integrate rather than further compartmentalise land usage. To have the greatest effect some argue biodiversity linkage projects should be as extensive as possible and operate at landscape scale, such as the Great Eastern Range biolink. Such initiatives cross jurisdictions. In the south, the Murray River Corridor, the Northern Plains Grasslands Biolink and Habitat 141 have connecting tissue with NSW and the Great Eastern Ranges Biolink initiative travels the length of the east coast starting in the Grampians/Gariwerd.

Figure 17: Biolink, groups and organisations. Source Habitat 141: http://www.flickr.com/photos/habitat141/5831886844/

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Connectivity conservation The Steering Committee of the Natural Resource Management Ministerial is often based on the Council recently approved the public release of a ‘proof of concept’ report on the idea of a continental-scale conservation corridor which concept of large-scale extends along Australia’s Great Eastern Ranges, from Victoria through ‘connectivity corridors’ New South Wales to Atherton in Queensland. Case studies from the Bega Valley, north-eastern New South Wales and central Queensland that maintain or establish help illustrate the conservation challenges facing much of the Great multidirectional and Eastern Ranges corridor. multi-scale connections, Appropriate conservation management may enable the corridor to encompassing up make a significant contribution to Australia’s national carbon accounts by protecting forest and other ecosystem carbon stocks and avoiding to thousands of depletion of these stocks from emissions associated with land-use square kilometres. activities. The co-benefits will allow forests and other ecosystems with depleted carbon stocks to regrow to reach their carbon-carrying capacity and, by promoting permanent native revegetation, increase the stock of carbon stored in the Great Eastern Ranges corridor ecosystems. Connectivity conservation is often based on the concept of large-scale ‘connectivity corridors’ that maintain or establish multidirectional and multiscale connections, encompassing up to thousands of square kilometres. Practically, it is anticipated that these links will allow species and communities to move away from areas where they are threatened by climate change. This remains to be tested and will vary from case to case. We still have only limited information to allow managers to predict how to restore, keep or manage land for functional connectivity, and ongoing research is essential in this key area.292 For example, not all species use connected habitat networks in ways anticipated by humans. So, designing connections in an informed way will require better understanding of landscapes from the perspective of diverse species and empirical scientific evidence or local knowledge and embedded information about what works and what does not. At a finer scale than installing canopy and understory, biolinks and corridors are needed to enhance the resilience of animals and plants by reconnecting populations across a fragmented landscape. By facilitating species movement, these efforts will provide some insurance against disturbance such as fire with its ever present potential to destroy populations. Connectivity initiatives may be subtle or simple – for instance the work done to save the mountain pigmy possum –reflected in the ‘tunnel of love’ is a vastly more sophisticated engineering structure than the simple rope bridges across the Hume Highway.

Pygmy Possum biolink Mt Hotham. Image courtesy of Mt Hotham, ARCC.

106 Rope ladder across the Hume Highway, near Violet Town. Image CfES, 2012.

Corridors which extend over many degrees of latitude and longitude, and which include land of many tenures and ownership, providing interconnections and embedding protected areas will assist in maintaining evolutionary interactions which will be necessary in a time of climate change. Dispersal corridors and ecological corridors will focus on landscape permeability for ecosystem processes.293

Habitat bridge, Vale. Source http://www.westernlaw.org/our-work/wildlife/canada-lynx/arc-wildlife- crossing-structure-design-competition-co, HNTB with Michael Van Valkenburgh & Associates (New York) winner ARC Wildlife Crossing Structure Design Competition.

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Shelterbelts can also 6.3 productive landscapes and protect stock from biodiversity connectivity co-benefits wind chill, reduce their It is increasingly clear that all landscapes are ‘productive’. Those not in exposure to heat, primary production are nevertheless producing ecosystem services. promote growth and It is necessary to talk about the benefits which biolinks and corridors reduce deaths due to will produce for those landscapes which are traditionally regarded as ‘productive’ in the agricultural sense. weather exposure. Challenges exist to building resilient connectivity whilst maintaining sustainable production and biodiversity conservation. Some argue that corridors may in fact promote the movement of bushfire across a landscape, and promote the movement of weeds and pests. To ensure community support for biodiversity linkages and to meaningfully embed biodiversity in private land management, biolinks and corridors need to be appreciated as part of integrated ‘productive’ landscapes rather than as a ‘non-productive’ reforesting of agricultural land. This is a common misconception about biodiversity conservation. Private landholders appear to be increasingly interested in the operations of connectivity corridors and biolinks on a smaller scale. The reasons for this may be that where such initiatives are installed erosion is minimised, as is salinity. As shelterbelts these innovations protect stock, crops and pasture and soils. They can aid in pollination (important for crops like canola) and the biodiversity they cultivate can assist in the control of pest insects.294 Cotton growers have built bat boxes and the nocturnal habits of tawny frogmouths make them great predators of cotton moth pests like Helicoverpa.295 Shelter belts can also protect stock from wind chill, reduce their exposure to heat, promote growth and reduce deaths due to weather exposure. Increases in wool, meat and milk production have been associated with shelter belts, as have stock birth weights and birth rates.296 This is not just anecdotal or intuitive. DPI research supports the following contentions: protecting waterways, remnant vegetation and revegetating land aids farm productivity by providing the following benefits: • sheltered pastures lose 12mm of water less than open pastures during the spring growing season • cold stress reduces live weight gain in cattle by 31% over several weeks (shelter belts reduce this) • 100 straw-necked Ibis consume up to 25,000 insects per day • sugar gliders have been estimated to eat 3.25 kilograms of insects per year • gross value of pasture output is at its highest level when the proportion of tree area on a farm is 34%.297

108 Sheep sheltering. Image CfES, 2012.

Sheep sheltering under trees in paddock. Image CfES, 2012.

A colony of bent-winged bats, provided with habitat, consume a tonne of insects per night, and it is known that parrots, cuckoos, sacred kingfishers, thrushes, honey eaters, robins and fairy wrens are very useful pest predators.298 Not only do biolinks and connectivity initiatives cross expanses of territory they also work with differing levels and layers of governance: highly formal structures or simple commitment to sustainability which centres on community action plans and other mechanisms.299 The co- benefits are significant. Private land owners appreciate this. Incentives make mutually benficial remediation more attractive and attainable.

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CHAPTER SEVEN – PROMOTING THE ‘PATTERN THAT CONNECTS’

Road between Little Desert Nature Park and Nhill. Image CfES, 2012.

We have work to do in Victoria to conserve the remaining 20% of native vegetation on private land that provides habitat for at least 30% of Victoria’s threatened species populations. Reliance upon our National Reserve System alone will not deliver the outcomes we need. Constraining ourselves to valuing public land for biodiversity fails to recognise the good will, application and possibilities available to us in conserving biodiversity and expanding native vegetation cover in the private domain, of which there is so much. Some of the work we need to do will include the following.

7.1 Finding a way of valuing the environment, biodiversity and ecosystem services Environmental pricing, which includes payments based on good stewardship will assist us to reach the goals of: • better broad-based environmental outcomes • greater engagement of the public • attainment of greater security for biodiversity and ecosystem services • shifting the current capital paradigm towards real and realistic, multiple-benefit diversity conservation (environmental and societal) on productive private land.

110 7.2 policy that impacts – incorporating The hectares mount private landowners as partners up and participant numbers increase. No single management paradigm will work for the diversity of Victorian communities. Policy that facilitates a variety of approaches will encourage action across a range of settings.300 The aim should be net gain of landscape scale biodiversity potential. Incentives present as a significant stepping stone. Examples of how these payments work have started to develop a critical mass. Incentives, properly supported by on the ground operations which are accessible and whose work is well advertised seems a small price to pay for the support of the ‘pattern that connects’. Early work done in evaluating the Dryland Landscape Strategy Working Group (GBCMA, 2007, 2008) provided an examination of the scope of environmental management grants, waterway works grants, bush returns, BushTender, conservation covenants, revolving funds and national reserve purchases.301 The hectares mount up and participant numbers increase. The number of sites signed up to the various programs was as high as 150 per year and the areas under BushTender arrangements ranged from 1 ha to 200 ha. Smaller parcels clearly attracted attention and bush returns covered 33.5 ha and waterway works programs ranged from areas of 1.3ha to 11.5ha. The variability of these areas provides an indication of the breadth of the possibilities. Other evaluations are being conducted and these should be used to inform the process of developing the critical mass for private involvement in addressing fragmentation and consequent biodiversity loss and the erosion of ecosystem services.

7.3 ensuring a role for communities It has been remarked that corridor development efforts which actively promote biodiversity and ecosystem services have focussed on areas where there are strong supportive communities. Habitat 141 with its links to Trust for Nature’s Buloke Woodland Project supporting the endangered South Eastern Redtailed Black Cockatoo is emblematic of this.302 Again this suggests a critical mass is an important driver even though we know it is not the only thing that promotes change. We will need to see community interest cultivated in ways which takes it across borders and beyond local parameters. This will be done when the policy and other levers are used to leverage a holistic, trans-boundary understanding of biodiversity and its connectedness.

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Incentives and professional 7.4 national Wildlife Corridor Plan – development should trans-boundary ‘whole-of-continent’ run in parallel, not be regarded as alternative possibilities methodologies. Habitat 141 and the Great Eastern Ranges Biolink provide us with two multi-jurisdictional proposals which illustrate the value of restoring and managing connectivity potential. These proposals cross public and private land, evidencing the important role of the private landholder in generating change. An initiative which will help to promote the broad vision we need is contained in the proposal for a national Wildlife Corridors Plan and Act. Many public, academic and agency submissions were made to the federal government about the benefits of a National Wildlife Corridor Plan and Act.303

Incentives and professional development The Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University picked up on a number of the themes which we have explored here. These include providing a ‘more balanced approach between protecting our national wildlife corridors and retaining property owner rights’, ‘clear identification of all stakeholders’ and the need to establish a ‘guiding principle to indicate that mitigation of constructed barriers to dispersal304 is a priority’.305 The Fenner School researchers also observed the need to ‘focus on ecosystem services as rational economics rather than ongoing subsidies’. In making this point they suggest that the Plan should ‘focus on providing ongoing education of farming and other landholder communities’ rather than providing incentives. We would couch this observation differently and widen its scope. There is a need for farming communities to be provided with the best available research on the value and benefits of shelter belts and remnant vegetation but this should not be done in the absence of offering incentives, which as we have shown, have palpable benefits quite independent of any ‘education’ program. Any education program should also be understood as providing social information networks and farmer to farmer communication, in the manner of some of the best practice ‘extension’ services.306 Suggesting that farming families need ‘education’, has the potential to be hopelessly patronising and alienate the willing and the ready. Incentives and professional development should run in parallel, not be regarded as alternative methodologies.

112 National Wildlife Corridors Act Each of these attributes Professor Ben Boer also provided a submission to the National Wildlife is important. Corridors Plan investigation. His interest was effectively confined to a discussion of the proposal that the plan be supported by legislation – a National Wildlife Corridors Act. Professor Boer commented that legislation would have a number of impacts. It would: • ‘considerably bolster the effectiveness of the National Reserve System’ • act as a ‘catalyst for the implementation and expansion of connectivity conservation’ across the whole federation • provide traction for the National Wildlife Corridors Plan • present as a ‘valuable’ international model.307 Worboys308 also supported the establishment of a National Wildlife Corridors Act, and observed that a regulatory regime was not required. In his view an Act would: • confirm the national importance of corridors and connectivity across public and private land • establish legal status • recognise the need for enduring conservation legacies • provide evaluation mechanisms • make provision for strategic corridors to meet climate change eventualities and climate variability • recognise the need people – private landowners and others- have for formal recognition of their work • support an understanding of the need for and value of investing in natural ecosystem health • support community efforts • elevate the understanding of biodiversity to a ‘continental’ issue • formalise an understanding of the significance of ‘hotspots’ • institutionalise respect for property rights and working landscapes. Formalising connectivity conservation in this way would acknowledge the volunteers on the ground and Indigenous people’s connection and promote the status and understanding of our International obligations. Each of these attributes is important.

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Connectivity connection If we were to move into an understanding of connectivity conservation as a ‘whole of continent’ effort we would be entrenching our current efforts and legal frameworks and engaging with those who are involved and committed. We would be continue to be the subject promoting conditions on the ground which would advance the possibility of scholarship both here of a paradigm shift to greater collaborations – multidisciplinary and multiscale.309 The Australian government’s proposals could facilitate this, and internationally. particularly if ‘listing’ of corridors, a supervising broad based Council, and reporting to ensure effective monitoring, were instituted. The suggestion that an Act would be a useful adjunct to other efforts is not a submission made in isolation. Connectivity and legal frameworks continue to be the subject of scholarship both here and internationally. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has been recording case studies and collecting commentary on legal efforts over time. Countries which are advancing connectivity conservation include Brazil310 and Canada,311 South Korea312 and Lithuania,313 Germany314 and Bhutan.315 Bolivia316 and Vietnam317 have instituted decrees in support of these efforts. Lithuania has been very specific about its intentions, its legal instrument dealing in a delineated way with connectivity. Other states and governments are using a bundle of options to attain the result they desire. The Hungarians use their national land use planning instruments to ensure biodiversity connectivity.318 A recent conference held in Bonn by the IUCN discussed the ‘Legal Aspects of Connectivity Conservation’ and a paper will be issued in 2013.319

Kangaroos, Bastion Point. Image CfES, 2012.

114 7.5 promoting the ‘pattern that connects’ It is increasingly clear that to advance beyond community driven projects to effect and mainstream a culture of connectivity across our fragile privately owned landscapes, we will need to actively and assiduously pursue the following matters. We will need to: • recognize that those private landowners who provide the conditions for biodiversity to survive and thrive are doing all of us a service • publicise and persistently reinforce the role and importance of ecosystem services in the broader public domain • work on methodologies which allow us to ‘value’ ecosystem services in ways that help to inform and engage the community and decision makers about these essential and invaluable resources • establish and make routine, policy positions that both promote and make incentives readily available driving up the expansion of all the possibilities such payments can provide320 • develop collaborations based on biolink development on the landscape-scale, across jurisdictions and locally • fund organisational structures and staff them adequately to ensure they can coordinate the work that needs to happen • penalise and publicise infractions against biodiversity protections to send a message that biodiversity is valued. And finally; Incentives are one of the pivotal mechanisms necessary to promote this shift, both at the farm gate and in broad scale biolinks. We are a wealthy country and we would be wise to commit resources to this enterprise.

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Endnotes

1 p Forster, famer Victoria, personal communication February 2012. 2 commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, 2010, Science Policy People, State of the Environment Reporting 2013, Victoria, State of Victoria, produced in accordance with section 17 of the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability Act 2003 (the Act). The three papers are – Climate change, Biodiversity and Water. 3 http://www.cbd.int/images/publications/gbo3/figures/table2.png 4 See Many publics. Participation inventiveness and change 2012 at www.ces.vic.gov.au for an indication of the regional concern about biodiversity, and note the contents of the blog also contained on the website. 5 ecoLOGICAL RESPONSES OF AUSTRALIAN GRASSY WOODLAND AND SHRUBLAND ECOSYSTEMS TO AGRICULTURAL INTENSIFICATION: LESSONS FROM LONG-TERM, MULTI-SPECIES, MULTI-BIOME STUDIES Andrew Young and Linda Broadhurst in Land use intensification: effects on agriculture, biodiversity and ecological processes/edited by David Lindenmayer, Saul Cunningham and Andrew Young, CSIRO 2012. 6 IBID. 7 at an international level business has involved itself through the financial sector’s commitment to the Natural Capital Declaration at Rio+20. The declaration commits the financial community to ‘acknowledge and affirm the importance of natural capital in maintaining a sustainable global economy’ found at www.naturalcapitaldeclaration.org/ 8 Foundation Paper One Climate Change. Victoria: the science, our people and our state of play, Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability 2012 9 commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, 2008, State of the Environment 2008, State of Victoria 10 See the State of the Environment 2008, report section 4.2 Land and Biodiversity. 11 Report on Australia’s Future Tax System 2010. 12 aBS found at www.anra.gov.au/topics/land/landuse/vic/index.html#diff 13 communication to CfES from Land Victoria 2013. 14 the VAGO report is titled Effectiveness of compliance activities: Department of Primary Industry and Resources and Sustainability and Environment and can be found at http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/reports_and_publications/latest_reports/2012-13/20121024- compliance-dpi-dse.aspx 15 these cascading impacts are also elaborated in the work of W Steffen, A Burbridge, L Hughes, R Kitching, D Lindenmayer, W Musgrave, M Stafford Smith and P Werner, 2009, A strategic assessment of the vulnerability of Australia’s biodiversity to climate change: summary for policy makers, summary of a report to the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, commissioned by the Commonwealth of Australia. 16 raphael K. Didham, Lisa H. Denmead and Elizabeth L. Deakin, in Land use intensification: effects on agriculture, biodiversity and ecological processes/edited by David Lindenmayer, Saul Cunningham and Andrew Young, CSIRO 2012. Riches To Rags: The Ecological Consequences of Land Use Intensification in New Zealand. 17 See the very recent work of Rural Economy and Land Use Programme, 2012, Enhancing the environment through payment for ecosystem services. Does payment for ecosystem services offer a new opportunity for natural resource management and how can it work in practice? found at www.relu.ac.uk/news/policyandpracticenotes.htm and note the collection of case studies cited by TEEB. 2013, The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity for water and wetlands, found at http://www.teebweb.org/wetlands/ 18 david Pannell, 2011, ‘Policy perspectives on changing land management’ in D Pannell and F Vanclay, eds., 2011, Changing land management. Adoption of new practices by rural landholders, CSIRO publishing, discussing the range and level of sophistication of policy mechanisms which includes ‘informed inaction’ and policy incentives, negative incentives, extension, technology change and research. 19 For an ongoing discussion about the changes to the rural demographic see any of the work of Neil Barr, and for instance, Neil Barr, 2008, ‘The social landscapes of rural Victoria’, in C Pettit, W Cartwright, I Bishop, K Lowell, D Pullar and D Duncan, eds., Landscape analysis and visualisation. Spatial models for natural resource management and planning, Springer Link Text. And see N Barr, 2005, Understanding Rural Victoria, Department of Primary Industries, Victoria, Melbourne, for a discussion of rural landscapes and the extent of the change in demographics and management techniques. 20 See Ian Lunt’s Ecological Research Site, 2011, ‘Precious regeneration or woody weeds?’ found at http://ianluntresearch.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/precious-regeneration-or-woody-weeds/ and L Geddes, ID Lunt, L Smallbone and JW Morgan, 2011, ‘Old field colonization by native trees and shrubs following land use change: could this be Victoria’s largest example of landscape recovery?’ in Ecological Management and Restoration, in press, and Australian Government, 2010, Landscape Logic: Fact sheet for managers and policy makers #8, ‘Measuring Long Term Change in Native Tree Cover’.

116 21 See Australia State of the Environment 2011, Commonwealth of Australia found at www.environment.gov.au › SoE 22 d SE Victorian Milestone 2 Report for NLWRA Biodiversity Assessment 2008 found at www.nlwra.gov.au/library/scripts/objectifyMedia.aspx?file=pdf/104/23.pdf 23 See the Museum of Victoria website for reports of ‘bush blitzes’ conducted in the past three years – www.museumvictoria.com.au 24 See World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2012, Picking up the pace – accelerating public policies for positive outcomes. A WBCSD analysis of company case studies on biodiversity and ecosystems regulation, input to the 11th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, found at www.wbcsd.org 25 Todd Bendor, 2009, ‘A dynamic analysis of the wetland mitigation process and its effects on no net loss policy’ in Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 89, Issues 1–2, 30 January 2009, Pag e s 17–27. 26 Robert P. Brooks, Denice Heller Wardrop, Charles Andrew Cole, Deborah A. Campbell, 2005, ‘Are we purveyors of wetland homogeneity?: A model of degradation and restoration to improve wetland mitigation performance’ Ecological Engineering, Volume 24, Issue 4, 5 April 2005, Pages 331–340. 27 commonwealth of Australia, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 Environmental Offsets Policy, October 2012 28 Victorian Government, 2002, Victoria’s Native Vegetation Management: A Framework for Action, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, p. 5. 29 Gary D Libecap, 2009, ‘The tragedy of the commons: property rights and markets as solutions to resource and environmental problems’, in Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Special Issue: Property Rights vol 53:1, 129-144. 30 Jedidiah Brewer and Gary D Libecap, 2009, ‘Property rights and the public trust doctrine in environmental protection and natural resource conservation’, in, Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Special Issue: Property Rights vol 53:1, 1-17. 31 Marsden Jacob, 2010, Review of the Environmental Stewardship Program. A report prepared for DSEWPaC found at www.marsdenjacob.com.au and www.nrm.gov.au/resources/publications/stewardship/pubs/esp-review.pdf- Key Finding Number 6. 32 Marsden Jacob, 2010, Review of the Environmental Stewardship Program. A report prepared for DSEWPaC found at www.marsdenjacob.com.au and www.nrm.gov.au/resources/publications/stewardship/pubs/ esp-review.pdf – Key Finding Number 5. 33 Ibid 34 david J Pannell, 2008, ‘Public benefits, private benefits, and policy intervention for land-use change for environmental benefits’, Land Economics 84(2): 225-240. 35 G Arturo Sanchez-Azofeira, Alexander Pfaff, Juan Andres Robalino and Judson P Boomhower, 2007, ‘Costa Rica’s Payment for Environmental Services Program: Intention, Implementation and Impact’, in Conservation Biology Vol 21 No 5 2007. 36 ronald Coase, 1960, ‘The problem of social costs’ in Journal of law and economics vol 3: 1-44. 37 carl Dahlman, 1979, ‘The problem of externalities’ in Journal of law and economics vol 22: 141- 162. 38 G Arturo Sanchez-Azofeira, Alexander Pfaff, Juan Andres Robalino and Judson P Boomhower, 2007, ‘Costa Rica’s Payment for Environmental Services Program: Intention, Implementation and Impact’, in Conservation Biology Vol 21 No 5 2007. 39 david J Pannell, 2008, Public: private benefits framework version 3, INFFER Working Paper 0805, University of Western Australia. 40 For an early examination of the role of biolinks in biodiversity conservation also see M Soule, B Mackey, H Recher, J Williams, J Woiharski, D Driscoll, W W Dennison and M Jones, 2004, ‘The role of connectivity in Australian conservation’, in Pacific Conservation Biology, 10: 266-279. 41 at the commonwealth level see the community input and interest in the discussion around the Draft National Wildlife Corridors Plan 2012 found at www.environment.gov.au › ... › Wildlife corridors. At the state level see Victorian Environmental Assessment Council, 2011, Remnant Native Vegetation Investigation Report and also VEAC 2012, Yellingbo Investigation Draft Proposals Paper both found at www.veac.vic.gov.au at page 15. Note the work which is being done across Victoria in relation to Habitat 141 and the Great Eastern Range Biolink which extends from Queensland through NSW and into now, into Victoria. See Karen Alexander, 2012, ‘Lessons learnt from the ground up’ in Park Watch for a brief commentary about community interest in meetings associated with the Great Eastern Ranges Biolinks project in Victoria. Details of the GER can be found at www.centralvicbiolinks.org.au and also at www.greateasterranges.org.au where a regular community newsletter is being produced.

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42 david Lindenmayer, Saul Cunningham and Andrew Young, 2012, Perspectives on land use intensification and biodiversity conservation, David Lindenmayer, Saul Cunningham and Andrew Young, 2012, eds., Land use intensification: effects on agriculture, biodiversity and ecological processes. 43 note the comment in the VEAC Yellingbo report (see note above) that “Through [Horticulture for Tomorrow] the Centre for Agriculture and Business-Yarra Valley (now Agribusiness-Yarra Valley), the Department of Primary Industries, and Horticulture Australia have identified that there is currently limited understanding of industry’s impacts on the region’s natural resources. It has found that, in general, industry places a low importance on natural resource management and focuses on productivity improvements and economic outcomes”; Z Geo, 2012, ‘Increased Dependence of Humans on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity’ at www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0013113 accessed 10 September 2012. For Victorian policy context see ‘Healthy parks, healthy people: The health benefits of contact with nature in a park context’ – a review of relevant literature conducted by Deakin University (2nd edition March 2008), http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/313821/HPHP-deakin-literature-review. pdf accessed 10 September 2012. The key principles of the Melbourne Communiqué adopted at the 2010 International Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress can be viewed here: http://www. hphpcentral.com/congress/the-melbourne-communique accessed 10 September 2012. For the role of diversity in ecosystem services, see F Isbell et al, 2011, ‘High plant diversity is needed to maintain ecosystem services’, Nature 477, 199–202 (8 September 2011) at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v477/n7363/full/nature10282.html accessed 10 September 2012. 44 For a very recent commentary on the issue of the identification of the ‘countless undiscovered species’ see the Yale Environment 360 interview with taxonomist Quentin Wheeler, the founding director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at the Arizona State University (28 September 2012). 45 See any of the Land Conservation Council reports, ranging from the Alps to Melbourne and the Mallee, all of which contain highly informative maps and commentary. These can be found in the State Library. 46 See ‘Cities and Biodiversity Outlook 1 Synthesis: A global assessment of the links between urbanization, biodiversity and ecosystems’ http://www.cbd.int/authorities/doc/cbo-1/CBO- revised-draft_12feb2012.docx accessed 11 September 2012. 47 V EAC, 2011, Remnant Native Vegetation Investigation Report found at www.veac.vic.gov.au 48 a Danne, 2003, ‘Voluntary environmental agreements in Australia. An analysis of statutory and non-statutory frameworks for the implementation of voluntary environmental agreements in Australia’ in 2003, EPLJ vol 20 P 287 @ 312. 49 Victorian Environmental Assessment Council, 2010 Remnant Native Vegetation Investigation Discussion Paper www.veac.vic.gov.au. 50 For the complete list of Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 Action Statements see http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/plants-and-animals/native-plants-and-animals/threatened-species- and-communities/action-statements/flora-and-fauna-guarantee-act-action-statements-index-of- approved-action-statements. And for those ‘listed’ see http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/ pdf_file/0019/141580/201207-FFG-threatened-list.pdf 51 Pimelea spinescens subsp. Spinescens, critically endangered EPBC Act 1999. 52 Perameles gunni unnamed, endangered EPBC Act 1999. 53 Pedionomus torquatus, vulnerable EPBC Act 1999. 54 Diuris fragrantissima, dependent upon natve bees for pollination, endangered EPBC 1999. 55 department of the environment, water, heritage and the arts, 2008, natura temperate grassland of the Victorian volcanic plain. A nationally threatened ecological community, Policy Statement 3.8 pursuant to the powers of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 found at www.environment.gov.au/au/epbc/about/exemptions.html. And see the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 action statement (number 182) for this ecological community – found at www.dse.vic.gov.au/dse/index.html under Native Plants and Animals 56 dB Lindenmayer 2007, On borrowed time: Australia’s environmental crisis and what we must do about it, CSIRO publishing, Camberwell; JCZ Woinarski, BG Mackey, H Nix and BJ Traill, 2007, The nature of Northern Australia: natural values, ecological processes and future prospects, ANU Press, Canberra; and see RT Kingsford, JEM Watson, CJ Linquist, O Venter, EL Johnston, J Atherton, M Gawel, D Keith, B Mackey, HP Possingham, B Raynor, KA Wilson, 2009, ‘Major conservation policy issues for biodiversity in Oceania’, in Conservation Biology 23, 834-840 for a commentary on the endangerment listing for invertebrate species across Australia.

118 57 Stuart Whitten, David Freudenberger, Carina Wyborn, Veronic Doerr, Erice Doerr, Art Lanston, 2011, A compendium of existing and planned Australian wildlife corridor projects and initiatives, and case study analysis of operational experience, Report for DSEWPaC, where CSIRO’s submission talks about climate change and invasive species as the coming threats compounding decades of land use intensification; M Taylor and P Figgis, 2007, ‘Protected areas: buffering nature against climate change – overview and recommendations’ in Protected areas: buffering nature against climate change. Proceedings of a WWF and IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Symposium, 2007, Canberra. 58 t his State of the Environment Report (2011) recorded that of Victoria’s 3140 known species of vascular plants, 1826 or 58% are included on the non-statutory Advisory List of Rare and Threatened Plants (49 being extinct), whilst only 288 are listed under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. Comparing 2007 data with 2002 data 20 bioregions had more threatened species, 4 had entered equilibrium and 4 had fewer threatened species. In respect of bird life 126 of 447 recorded species are included on the non-statutory Advisory List of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna as distinct from the listing of 78 under the Flora and fauna Guarantee Act 1988. Data is also provided for fish and reptiles and it is noted that our ‘knowledge of the status of invertebrates is extremely poor. Extinction rates in our mega-diverse continent are: half of all known mammal extinctions over the last 200 years having taken place here see C Johnson 2006 Australia’s mammal extinctions: a 50,000 year history, Cambridge University Press Cambridge UK and we have lost birds, frogs and flowering plants, see ABS 2006 Measures of Australia’s Progress, Commonwealth Australia, Canberra. 59 Commonwealth SoE 2011; Victorian SOE 2008 p 245; RA and CG Mittermeir and PRE Gill, 19 97, Megadiversity: Earth’s Biologically wealthiest nations, ed., CEMAX, Mexico City, Mexico.; Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book Australia 2012, land and biodiversity http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by%20Subject/1301.0~2012~Main%20 Features~Land%20and%20biodiversity~278 accessed 13 September 2012. And see Will Steffen, Andrew A Burbidge, Lesley Hughes, Roger Kitching, David Lindenmayer, Warren Musgrave, Mark Stafford Smith and Patricia A Werner, 2009, Australia’s biodiversity and climate change. A strategic assessment of the vulnerability of Australia’s biodiversity to climate change. A report tp the Natural Resources management Ministerial Council commissioned by the Australian Government accessed at http://www.climatechange.gov.au/publications/biodiversity/~/media/publications/biodiversity/ biodiversity-vulnerability-assessment-lowres.ashx on 22 September 2012. 60 the picture can be quite confusing, however, as endangered and rare status can vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The bush stone curlew (burhinus grallarius) is recorded as threatened in Victoria (under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988) but regarded as endangered under the DSE Advisory List and endangered in New South Wales (Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995) but described as vulnerable in South Australia (National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972), and management regimes change from state to state. The koala has just been classified as endangered in Canberra, Queensland and NSW but not so in Victoria. For a review of state- based threats and responses to koala protection and detail regarding corridors planted by private citizens for cassowary (Mission Beach) and koala (Gunnedah) habitats, see Williams et al, 2012 ‘Optimised whole-landscape ecological metrics for effective delivery of connectivity-focused conservation incentive payments’ Ecological Economics, Volume 81, September, Pages 48–59 and ABC Four Corners episode Koala Crunch Time http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/08/16/3569231.htm accessed 10 September 2012. 61 See the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 Action Statement for the phasogale at http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/103141/079_Brush-tailed_ Phascogale_1997.pdf. “In New South Wales, the Brush-tailed Phascogale’s range has been halved and it is considered extinct in South Australia (T. Soderquist pers.comm.)”. And see David and Cam Beardsell, 1999, The Yarra. A Natural Treasure, Royal Society of Victoria, Melbourne. 62 Latin name caladenia rosella, listed nationally as endangered see http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=5086, and for the Victorian Action Statement pursuant to the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 see http:// www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/103240/103_twelve_caladenias_2000.pdf 63 Latin name Caladenia aff fragrantissima listed nationally as endangered see http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=64502, and for the Victorian Action Statement pursuant to the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 see http:// www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/103240/103_twelve_caladenias_2000.pdf. 64 epBC 1999 and FFG 1988 listed. 65 da Saunders and BH Walker, no date, Biodiversity and agriculture, CSIRO Wildlife and Ecology, found at http://www.wentworthgroup.org/docs/Biodiversity_and_Agriculture.pdf accessed 22 September 2012. 66 K Howard, L Beesley, L Joachim and A King, 2011, Cultural conservation of freshwater turtles in Barmah-Millewa Forest, 2010-2011, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Technical report Series no 223, found at www.dse.vic.gov.au/ari

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67 K Howard, L Beesley, L Joachim and A King, 2011, Cultural conservation of freshwater turtles in Barmah-Millewa Forest, 2010-2011, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Technical report Series no 223, found at www.dse.vic.gov.au/ari 68 For a far reaching discussion of these issues see PB Thompson, 2010, The Agrarian Vision: Sustainability and Environmental Ethics, Lexington, University Press of Kentucky. 69 See Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005, MEA: ecosystems and human wellbeing: a framework for assessment, World Resources Institute, Washington DC; World Bank, 2004, What is an ecosystem worth: assessing the economic value of conservation? Washington DC; World Resources Institute, 2007, Restoring nature’s capital: an action agenda to sustainable ecosytem services, World Resources Institute, Washington DC. See also P Kareiva, H Tallis, TH Ricketts, GC Daily and S Polasky, 2011, Natural capital. Theory and practice of mapping ecosystem services (Oxford, Oxford University Press) which contains essays which examine the ecosystem service provision associated with the retention of nutrients, the provision of timber, and ecosystem values in agriculture. The value of crop pollination, in an essay by C Kremon, R Winfree, S Greenleaf and N Williams, is estimated to contribute US$190 billion a year to the agricultural sector. 70 an interesting international case study considering accounting for ecosystem services is Nakivubo swamp, Uganda. It focusses on the economic value of wetland wastewater purification and nutrient retention functions (IUCN, 2003). US$2 million was saved on a water purification plant by maximising natural processes – see ‘Nakivubo swamp, Uganda: Managing natural wetlands for their ecosystem services’ http://iwlearn.net/abt_iwlearn/events/ouagadougou/readingfiles/iucn-uganda-nakivubo.pdf/ view accessed 10 September 2012. Similarly, the New York City Department for Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) funds and implements a Long‐Term Watershed Protection Program, which maintains and protects the high quality source of drinking water for nine million water consumers (nearly half the state’s total population), http://www.theriverstrust.org/seminars/archive/water/WRT_WATER_PES_Guide_27-06-12_ A3.pdf and http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/watershed_protection/programs.shtml accessed 11 September 2012. 71 aF Appleton, 2002, ‘How New York City used an ecosystem services strategy carried on through an Urban renewal partnership to preserve the Pristine quality of its drinking water and saved billions of dollars’, paper presented to Forest Trends, Tokyo and cited by the OECD, 2004, Handbook of Market Creation for Biodiversity. Issues in Implementation, OECD publications. 72 M Lockwood, 2012, ‘Scoping the territory: considerations for connectivity connection managers’ citing N Dudley and S Stolton, 2003, Running pure: the importance of forest protected areas to drinking water (World Bank and WWEF Alliance for Forest Conservation, Washington DC.) in GL Worboys, W Francis and M Lockwood, 2010, Connectivity conservation management. A global guide (with particular reference to mountain connectivity conservation), earthscan, London. 73 GL Worboys, RB Good and AP Spate, 2011, Caring for our Australian Alps Catchments: A Climate Change Action Strategy for the Australian Alps to Conserve the Natural Condition of the Catchments and to Help Minimise Threats to High Quality Water Yields, A Technical Report prepared for the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Canberra and Australian Alps Liaison Committee, Jindabyne. 74 Victorian Parliament, Inquiry into liveability options in outer suburban Melbourne, 2012, www.parliament.vic.gov.au p 133 75 I Pulsford, GL Worboys and G Howling, 2010, ‘Australian Alps to Atherton connectivity conservation corridor’ in GL Worboys, WL Francis, M Lockwood, eds., 2010, Connectivity conservation management a global guide (with particular reference to mountain connectivity conservation) earthscan London @ page 101. 76 p Barkham, 2010, The butterfly isles, Granta (referring throughout to the work of Dr Owen Lewis of Oxford University). 77 canola crop pollination has been the subject of much research. See Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008. Agricultural Commodities: Small Area Data, Australia, 2005-06 (Reissue), ABS No 7125.0; R Manning and IR Wallis, 2005. ‘Seed yields in canola (Brassica napus cv. Karoo) depend on the distance of plants from honeybee apiaries’, in Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 45: 1307-1313; R Sabbahi, D Deoliveira and J Marceau, 2005. ‘Influence of Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Density on the Production of Canola (Crucifera: Brassicacae)’, Journal of Economic Entomology, 98: 367-372; and by the same authors, 2006. ‘Does the Honeybee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) reduce the Blooming Period of Canola’, in Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science, 192: 233-237; D Somerville, 2002. ‘Honey bees on canola’, in Agnote. NSW Agriculture. 78 See the work by Sarah Maclagan and contributing author Mark Cairns, 2008, Biolinks Project Action Plan: Linking Habitats across the Western Port Catchment Central Region, found at http://www.cecinc.net.au/images/stories/CEC_Biolinks_Project_Action_Plan_2008_-_Web.pdf, accessed 22 September 2012.

120 79 c SIRO site http://anic.ento.csiro.au/ants/biota_details.aspx?BiotaID=35719 provides details. 80 cS Chong, LJ Thomson and AA Hoffmann, 2011, ‘High Diversity of Ants in Australian Vineyards’, in Australian Journal of Entomology, 50, 7-21. 81 canopy cover provides ecosystem services in cities and towns and is being deployed across a range of city scapes – for an extensive discussion of this see the Water Foundation Paper in this series (OCES 2012). 82 See http://www.millenniumassessment.org/ documents/document.354.aspx.pdf 83 For opinion over time see R Eckersley, 1995, ed., Markets, the state, and the environment: towards integration, MacMillan Education Australian P/L, Melbourne; TL Anderson and D Leal, 2000, Free market environmentalism, Westview, Boulder; G Murtough, B Aretino and A Matysek, 2002, Creating markets for ecosystem services, Productivity Commission Staff Research Paper, AustInfo, Canberra. 84 Most evidently this plays out in the international arena in the System of Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA) recently approved by the UN Statistical Commission and reflected in the work of the World Bank’s Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) an initiative supporting the move to natural capital accounting in places as divergent as Madagasgar, Spain and Zanzibar, about services as varied as mangroves and forests, found at www.unefi.org 85 S Maynard, D James and A Davidson, 2010, The Development of an Ecosystem Services Framework for South East Queensland Environmental Management in Environmental Management DOI 10.1007/s00267-010-9428-z, published online. See also the very recent paper by Simone Maynard prepared for the US EPA, 2012, Comparisons and Contrasts: Comparing and contrasting the US Ecosystem Services Research Program with approaches to develop information on ecosystem services in the UK National Ecosystem Assessment and the SEQ Ecosystem Services Project. Final Report, obtained by contacting the author at smaynard@ seqcatchments.com.au 86 See https://ensym.dse.vic.gov.au/home/aboutensym accessed 22 September 2012. 87 G Hocking et al, 2009, Goulburn Broken Groundwater Model. Transient model development report (prepared for DSE/GBCMA Eco Markets, Valuing our environment) see https://ensym.dse.vic.gov.au/docs/GoulburnBroken_TransientModelReport_FINAL.pdf, accessed 28 September 2012. 88 See the World Bank’s Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) at www.unefi.org 89 the value of mangroves is discussed in some detail in the appendix of the recent report - TEEB, 2013, The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity for water and wetlands found at www.teebweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/TEEB.Waterwetlands_Report_2013.pdf 90 The implications of climate change for Australia’s biodiversity conservation protected areas, September 2012, found at http://www.csiro.au/Organisation-Structure/Flagships/Climate-Adaptation-Flagship/adapt- national-reserve-system.aspx accessed 22 September 2012. 91 www.wmo,int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/pr_966_en.html; www.unep.org/pdf/permafrost.pdf; http://climatechange.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/Turn_ Down_the_heat_Why_a_4_degree_centigrade_warmer_world_must_be_avoided.pdf; www.pwc.com/en_GX/gx/low-carbon-economy-index . 92 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Core Writing Team, RK Pachauri and AE Reisinger, 20 07, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, Geneva, Switzerland, Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change and see the Climate Change Foundation paper in this series at www.ces.vic.gov.au . 93 J Gergis, R Neukom, S Phipps, A Gallant and D Karoly, 2012, ‘Evidence of Unusual Late 20th Century Warming from an Australasian Temperature Reconstruction Spanning the last Millennium’ in Journal Of Climate, In Press. 94 Stefan Rahmstorf, Grant Foster and Anny Cazenave, 2012, ‘Comparing climate projections to observations up to 2011’, 2012 Environment. Research. Letters. 7 044035 doi: 10.1088/1748al_9326/7/4/044035 95 IPCC Core Writing Team, RK Pachauri and AE Reisinger, 2007, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report Geneva, Switzerland, Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change. 96 e.S. Poloczanska, A.J. Hobday and A.J. Richardson (Eds) (2012). Marine Climate Change in Australia, Impacts and Adaptation Responses. 2012 Report Card. ISBN 978-0-643-10927-8 97 recent CSIRO reports describe some habitat loss possibilities – The implications of climate change for biodiversity conservation and the National Reserve System: Final synthesis and Implications for policymakers: Climate change, biodiversity conservation and the National Reserve System (Summary) found at http://csiro.au/Organisation-Structure/Flagships/Climate-Adaptation-Flagship/adapt-national- reserve-system.aspx.

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98 V. Williams, E Witkowski and K Balkwill, 2007, ‘The use of Incidence-Based Species Richness Estimators, Species Accumulation Curves and Similarity Measures to Appraise Ethnobotanical Inventories from South Africa’, in Biodiversity and Conservation, 16, 2495-2513. Climate Commission, 2012, Victorian Climate Impacts and Opportunities found at http://climatecommission.gov.au/report/victorian-climate-impacts-opportunities/ 99 aa Hoffmann, JS Camac, RJ Williams,W Papst, FC Jarrad and CH Wahren, 2010, ‘Phenological Changes in Six Australian Subalpine Plants in Response to Experimental Warming and Year-To- Year Variation in Journal of Ecology, 98, 927-937. 100 KL Mcdougall, JW Morgan, NG Walsh and RJ Williams, 2005, ‘Plant Invasions in Treeless Vegetation of the Australian Alps’, in Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics, 7, 159-171. 101 MR Kearney, NJ Briscoe, D Karoly, WP Porter, M Norgate and P Sunnucks, 2010, ‘Early Emergence in a Butterfly, Causally Linked to Anthropogenic Warming’, in Biology Letters, 6, 674-677. The status of the butterfly in Australian conservation regimes has been reported in DPA Sands and TR New, 2002, The action plan for Australian butterflies, published by the Natural Heritage Trust and found at http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/action/butterfly/pubs/ butterflies.pdf. an Action Statement under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/103365/006_Butterfly_Community_No- 1_1991.pdf) has been prepared for ‘Butterfly Colony number 1’ at Mount Piper between Tallarook and Mount William where the only known colony of small and large ant blues are known to co-exist. As an illustration of the layers of complexity which promote biodiversity the comment is made ‘the main food plants on which these butterflies lay their eggs are tree lichens, rock lichens and fungi. An ant (Iridomyrmex sp. aff. nitidus) that has an interdependent relationship with the ant-blue butterflies, also feeds on the lichens and fungi’. 102 Janice Wormworth and Cagan Sekercioglu, 2012, Winged Sentinels. Birds and climate change, Cambridge University Press. 103 KJ Hennessy and AB Pittock, 1995, ‘Greenhouse Warming and Threshold Temperature Events in Victoria, Australia’ in International Journal of Climatology, 15, 591-612. 104 the impact of climate change and the role of biotechnology in addressing these issues is explored in Julie Glover, Hilary Johnson, Jacqueline Lizzio, Varsha Wesley, Paul Hattersley and Catherine Knight, 2008, Australia’s crops and pastures in a changing climate – can biotechnology help? Bureau of Rural Science, Commonwealth of Australia, found at http://www.daff.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/929588/climate-change-and- biotechnology.pdf accessed 20 September 2012, CSIRO’s Sustainable Agriculture Flagship is working on these issues, found at http://www.csiro.au/en/Organisation-Structure/Flagships/ Sustainable-Agriculture-Flagship/SAF-overview.aspx#a1. And see also the Climate Change Foundation Paper in this series at www.ces.vic.gov.au. 105 See the most recent report from CSIRO, NCCARF and the Commonwealth Government Fisheries Research and Development Corporation on the winners and losers in the marine environment, Marine Climate Change. Impacts and Adaptation Report Card Australia 2012 found at http://www.oceanclimatechange.org.au/content/index.php/2012/home/ accessed on 22 September 2012. 106 one example of the complexity of the potential impacts can be found in the impacts on British Isles butterfly species, migratory and otherwise (see P Barkham, 2010, The Butterfly Isles, Granta). Butterflies may, initially, quite enjoy milder temperatures, but climate change has already generated an attractive habitat for a predatory parasitic fly which is killing the caterpillar stage of the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly prompting an estimated 45% drop in population numbers (@ p 42); low moisture is impacting the nutritional levels of nettles, a basic foodstuff (@ p 43); and some butterflies, like the Black Hairstreak may simply not want to relocate to accommodate changes in temperatures (@ p 333). The pace of change is simply too great. Butterflies are arriving a month earlier than was the case in 1980 and they are dying off a month earlier too, potentially impacting other species with which their life cycles intersect (@ p 273).

122 107 neil Comrie, 2012, Bushfires Royal Commission Implementation Monitor Final Report, found at http://www.bushfiresmonitor.vic.gov.au/resources/24a8a8cf-e374-40fe-af91-7685dd7fe965/ bushfiresroyalcommissionfullreport.pdf and accessed on 22 September 2012. Amongst the observations made about the role of controlled burning the Monitor had this to say – ‘The State’s commitment to the VBRC’s annual rolling target of burning five % of public land has been managed within tight funding and resource allocations (recommendation 56). The State, while not meeting the planned burning targets for 2011-12, has introduced a number of initiatives to improve the performance and delivery of the planned burning program. The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) is embarking on a planned burning reform program which will consider a number of options to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of planning, capability and delivery to facilitate achieving the annual rolling target of 390,000 hectares per annum (recommendations 56 and 57). The BRCIM questions the rolling target as the most effective way to increase the level of planned burning across the State as working towards a pre-determined target may diminish the State’s ability to focus on risk reduction in high risk areas. The BRCIM advocates that the State reconsider the planned burning rolling target of five % as the primary outcome as part of the planned burning reform program. It is considered that the most important objective of the planned burning program must be to address public safety risks in line with the VBRC’s intentions’. 108 JL Kohen, 1995. Aboriginal Environmental Impacts, Marrickville, UNSW Press. 109 For details of planned burns go to www.dse.vic.gov.au/fire-and-other-emergencies/planned-burning-an-introduction/burns-today- current-status/burns-this-season 110 SC Banks, EJ Knight, L McBurney, D Blair and DB Lindenmayer, 2011, ‘The Effects of Wildfire on Mortality and Resources for an Arboreal Marsupial: Resilience to Fire Events but Susceptibility to Fire Regime Change’, in Plos One, 6. 111 SC Banks, EJ Knight, L McBurney, D Blair and DB Lindenmayer, 2011, ‘The Effects of Wildfire on Mortality and Resources for an Arboreal Marsupial: Resilience to Fire Events but Susceptibility to Fire Regime Change’, in Plos One, 6. 112 JS Cohn, ID Lunt, KA Ross and RA Bradstock, 2011, ‘How Do Slow-Growing, Fire-Sensitive Conifers Survive in Flammable Eucalypt Woodlands?’ in Journal of Vegetation Science 22, 425-435. 113 BH Walker and D. Salt, 2006, Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World, Washington DC, Island Press. 114 this is not an isolated example but rather a helpfully explicit one. 115 Lucas C, Hennessy K, Mills G, Bathols J (2007) Bushfire weather in Southeast Australia: Recent trends and projected climate change impacts. Bushfire CRC/CSIRO 116 raphael, K, Didham R, Denmead, Lisa H, and Elizabeth L Deakin, 2012, ‘Riches to Rags. The Ecological Consequences of Land Use Intensification in New Zealand’ in D. Lindenmeyer, S. Cunningham and A Young, eds, 2012, Land use intensification: Effects on Agriculture, Biodiversity and Ecological Processes, CSIRO. 117 Michael Clarke, 2010, Clarification of expert opinion in correspondence to VBRC. 118 ackland, A, Salkin, O, Blackett, A, Friend, G Fogarty, L 2010 Future Fire Management Project. Defining and evaluating alternative fire management options to achieve improved outcomes for community protection, biodiversity and ecosystem services. Otway Pilot Study – Interim Report, DSE. 119 don A. Driscoll, David B. Lindenmayer, Andrew F. Bennett, Michael Bode, Ross A. Bradstock, Geoffrey J. Cary, Michael F. Clarke, Nick Dexter, Rod Fensham, Gordon Friend, Malcolm Gill, Stewart James, Geoff Kay, David A. Keith, Christopher MacGregor, Jeremy Russell-Smith, David Salt, James E.M. Watson, Richard J. Williams, Alan York (2010) Fire management for biodiversity conservation: Key research questions and our capacity to answer them. Biological Conservation, 143, 1928-1939. 120 MA Nash and AA Hoffmann, 2012, ‘Effective Invertebrate Pest Management in Dryland Cropping in Southern Australia: The Challenge of Marginality’ in Crop Protection, 43: 289-304. 121 See Neil Comrie, 2012, Bushfires Royal Commission Implementation Monitor Final reportJuly 2012. found at http://www.bushfiresmonitor.vic.gov.au/resources/24a8a8cf-e374-40fe-af91-7685dd7fe965/ bushfiresroyalcommissionfullreport.pdf and accessed on 22 September 2012. 122 Victorian State of the Environment Report 2008, www.ces.vic.gov.au; Commonwealth State of the Environment Report 2011; and see these issues canvassed extensively and supported by a vast reference list, C Nellemann, M MacDevette, T Manders, B Eickhout, B Svihus, AG Prins and BP Kaltenborn, eds., 2009. The environmental food crisis – The environment’s role in averting future food crises, a UNEP rapid response assessment, United Nations Environment Programme, GRID-Arendal, found at www.grida.no and accessed on 25 September 2012, noting in particular the chapter titled ‘Impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems from conventional expansion of food production’.

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123 http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/102319/Native_Vegetation_Management_-_A_ Framework_for_Action.pdf and the recent review of the Framework, released by DSE in September 2012 can be found at http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/145528/Future-directions-Consultation-Paper- September-2012.pdf. 124 d Tilman et al, 2002, ‘Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices’, in Science 418 (6898): 671-677. 125 p. Selman, 2008, ‘What Do We Mean By Sustainable Landscape?’ in Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy 4, 23-28; and see the recent CSIRO publication Land use intensification, CSIRO Publishing; and for one specific example of this see the work necessary in respect of the regent honeyeater due to the loss of its habitat, the box ironbark forests http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/regent-honeyeater.html accessed on 22 September 2012. 126 See CSIRO publication noted above. In international contexts see C Echeverría, A Newton, L Nahuelhual, D Coomes and JM Rey-Benayas, 2012, ‘How Landscapes Change: Integration of Spatial Patterns and Human Processes in Temperate Landscapes of Southern Chile’ in Applied Geography, 32, 822-831. Echeverría et al., 2012 127 the question of the environmental impacts of agriculture has been a subject of much scholarship over time. See J Pretty 2008, ‘Agricultural sustainability: concepts principles and evidence’ in 2008 Phil Trans R Soc B, 363, pp 447-465 and see a recent study regarding the issue of indicator selection in determining impacts – I Acosta-Alba and H M G van der Werf, 2011, ‘The use of reference values in indicator-based methods for the environmental assessment of agricultural systems’ in 2011 Sustainability vol 3: 424-442 found at www.mdpi. com/journal/sustsinability 128 IBID. 129 Land use intensification: effects on agriculture, biodiversity and ecological processes/edited by David Lindenmayer, Saul Cunningham and Andrew Young, McIntyre, CSIRO 2012. 130 I Lunt and J Morgan, 1999, ‘Vegetation Changes after 10 Years of Grazing Exclusion and Intermittent Burning in a Themeda Triandra (Poaceae) Grassland Reserve In South-Eastern Australia’, in Australian Journal of Botany 47. 131 d Ludwig, BH Walker and CS Holling, 2002, ‘Models and Metaphors of Sustainability, Stability, and Resilience’, in LH Gunderson and L Pritchard, eds., 2002, Resilience and Behaviour of Large Scale Systems. Washington: Island Press. 132 MA Nash and AA Hoffmann, 2012, ‘Effective Invertebrate Pest Management in Dryland Cropping in Southern Australia: The Challenge of Marginality’ in Crop Protection, 43: 289-304. 133 For Victorian government public information about salinity see DPI’s site at http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/farming-management/soil-water/salinityaccessed on 25 September 2012. 134 Soil acidity publications, WA Department of Agriculture found at http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/PC_92428.html accessed on 22 September 2012. 135 o ne extreme solution, used by Greening Australia and University of Melbourne in grassland revegetation efforts, is the scalping of topsoil prior to revegetation but this is expensive to effect and could not possibly be used across widespread terrain. 136 M Dunlop et al, 2012, The implications of climate change for biodiversity conservation and the National Reserve System: Final synthesis, CSIRO found at http://www.csiro.au/nationalreservesystem accessed on 5 March 2013. 137 Found at http://www.landscapefutures.com.au/publications.html accessed on 5 March 2013. 138 V EAC, 2010 Remnant Native Vegetation Investigation Discussion Paper, www.veac.vic.gov.au 139 eG Lebrun, RM Plowes and LE Gilbert, 2012, ‘Imported Fire Ants Near the Edge of their Range: Disturbance and Moisture Determine Prevalence and Impact of an Invasive Social Insect, in Journal of Animal Ecology, 81, 884-895. 140 See for instance the presentation by Tim Low of the Invasive Species Council, Risk of new crops: what should we do? Found on www.invasives.org.au (accessed on 25 September 2012) and the work of CSIRO entomologists at www.csiro.au/ento. 141 MA Nash, AA Hoffmann and LJ Thomson, 2010, ‘Identifying Signature of Chemical Applications on Indigenous and Invasive Nontarget Arthropod Communities in Vineyards’ in Ecological Applications, 20, 1693-1703. 142 For examples see http://www.environment.gov.au/soe/2011/report/biodiversity/3-9-invasive-species-and-pathogens. html#s3-9.

124 143 SJ Cork and D Shelton 2000, ‘The nature and value of Australia’s ecosystem services: framework for sustainable environmental services’ in Sustainable environmental solutions for industry and government, Proceedings of the 3rd Queensland Environment Conference, Institution of Engineers, Australian and Qld Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Brisbane. 144 d iscussed at http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2011/04/06/315301_on-farm.html, toolkit available at www.vicblackberrytaskforce.com.au accessed 22 September2012. 145 http://wimmera.landcarevic.net.au/hindmarsh/activities/project-hindmarsh-landcare-weekend accessed 22 September 2012. 146 For instance in respect of the Grey Crowned Babbler (Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 Action Statement at http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/103167/034_Grey-crowned_ Babbler_1992.pdf, accessed 22 September 2012) and the Regent Honeyeater work at http://regenthoneyeater.org.au/index.php accessed on 22 September 2012. 147 See D. J. Pannell, G. R. Marshall, N. Barr, A. Curtis, F. Vanclay and R. Wilkinson, 2006 ‘Understanding and promoting adoption of conservation practices by rural landholders’ in Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 46(1431) 1407–1424 fund at http://dx.doi. org/10.1071/EA05037 for passing references to the uptake of landcare by farming families. The program speaks for itself. 148 a t www.vago.vic.gov.au, www.edovic.org.au 149 We discuss the extent of the change required in the water foundation paper and the comments in that paper are equally applicable here. 150 VEAC Red Gum National Park Reference www.veac.vic.gov.au 151 L. Gibson and TR New, 2007, ‘Problems In Studying Populations of the Golden Sun Moth Synemon Plana (Lepidoptera: Castniidae), in South Eastern Australia’, in Journal of Insect Conservation 11, 309-313; D. Gilmore, Koehler, S., O’Dwyer, C. & Moore, W. 2008. ‘Golden Sun Moth Synemon Plana (Lepidoptera: Castniidae): Results of a Broad Survey of Populations around Melbourne’ in The Victorian Naturalist, 125, 39-46. 152 aL Yen, 2011, ‘Melbourne’s terrestrial invertebrate biodiversity: losses, gains and the new perspective’ in The Victorian Naturalist, 128, 201-208. 153 department of Primary Industries, 2012, Discussion paper. Towards a stand-alone Invasive Species Management Act 2012 found at http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/protecting-victoria-pest- animals-weeds/legislation,-policy-and-permits/new-invasive-species-legislation/discussion- paper-invasive-species-management-bill/foreword. 154 See L Godden and J Peel, 2010, Environmental law. Scientific, policy and regulatory dimensions, OUP, chapter 4 for a discussion of the regulatory terrain. 155 dJ Fiorino, 2006, The new environmental regulation, MIT Press @ page 222 156 acts relevant to pest species (for instance)include the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, Fisheries Act, 1995, Livestock Diseases Control Act 1994 and the recent Plant Biosecurity Act 2010 and these associated pieces of legislation – Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006, Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992 and the Drugs, Poison and Controlled Substances Act 1981, Biological Control Act 1986, Environment Protection Act 1970, Firearms Act 1996, Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988, Impounding of Livestock Act 1994, Land Act 1958, Local Government Act 1989, Marine Act 1988, National Parks Act 1975, Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, Parks Victoria Act 1988, Planning and Environment Act 1987, Port Management Act 1995, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986, Road Management Act 2004, Road Safety Act 1986, Sale of Land Act 1962, Wildlife Act 1975. 157 See the City of Greater Bendigo and Campaspe Shires Biolink Study 2009 for an illustration of differing priorities across proximate territorial scales. Also note, as one further example: Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority commissioned a report Assessing the Effectiveness of Local Planning Scheme Controls in Protecting Native Vegetation in the Port Phillip and Westernport Region in 2008, which explored the issue of complexity and suggested that better data capture, training, integration and coordination was necessary notwithstanding the ‘pioneering’ status of consecutive Victorian governments in working to arrest habitat loss. See http://www.ppwcma.vic.gov.au/Resources/PublicationDocuments/54/PPWCMA%20 Budge%20report_combined_FINAL.pdf accessed on 22 September 2012. The 2008 Victorian Auditor-General’s Office report,Victoria’s Planning Framework for Land Use and Development attested to the variety of planning permit management in local government settings, suggesting that much could be improved. See http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/reports_and_publications/latest_reports/2008/20080507_land_ use_and_devt.aspx accessed 22 September 2012.

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158 For example the following are all relevant – Clause 15.09, 52.17, 53, 65, 66 and sections 20(4),52,56, all of which require explanation for those working in the field. Found at www.vicroads.vic.gov.au . 159 Victorian Planning Provisions, Clause 53 found at planningschemes.dpcd.vic.gov.au/vpps/ 160 advice from VicRoads, December 2012. 161 advice from The Department of Sustainability and Environment. 162 Found at www.ces.vic.gov.au 163 environmental law texts provide illustrations of good and poor, formal and informal, interactions between federal, state and local legal systems in the Australian context, see Lee Godden and Jacqueline Peel, 2009, Environmental Law. Scientific, policy and regulatory dimensions, OUP, London; G Bates, 2010, Environmental Law in Australia, Lexis Nexis, Sydney. 164 V AGO, 2009, Administration of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 found at http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/reports__publications/reports_by_year/2009/20090401_flora_fauna. aspx; and see the recent report by the Environmental Defenders Office, 2012,A Framework for Action? Implementation and enforcement of Victoria’s native vegetation clearance controls see http://www.edovic.org.au/downloads/files/law_reform/edo_vic_monitoring_report_4-native_ vegetation.pdf. 165 See M Hain and C Cocklin, 2001, ‘The effectiveness of courts in achieving the goals of environmental protection legislation’ in EPLJ 18: 3, 319 @ 322. 166 International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement, 2009, Principles of Environmental Compliance and Enforcement found at www.epa.gov/nscep/ 167 Victorian Government, 2012, Future directions for native vegetation in Victoria – Review of Victoria’s native vegetation permitted clearing regulations Consultation paper, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Melbourne. 168 V AGO, 2012, Compliance Audit DSE and DPI, found at www.vago.vic.gov.au 169 See R Martin, 2005, ‘Trends in environmental prosecutions’ in 2 National Environmental Law Review 38; and R Baird, 2002, ‘Environmental prosecutions in Victoria – full benefit of amendments limited by prosecution structure’ in 19 EPLJ 83; and M Hain and C Cocklin, 2001, ‘The effectiveness of the courts in achieving the goals of environment protection legislation’ in 18 EPLJ 320, for a cross section of this discussion. 170 and, note the quickening interest in these issues, the UK government has established a Better Regulation Delivery Office through its Department of Business Innovation and Skills after a rather exhaustive round of reviews – the Hampton Review of 2005 and the Macrory Review of 2006 resulting in the Regulation Compliance Code 2007. Victoria has regulatory compliance guides issuing out of both the Department of Treasury and Finance and Department of Premier and Cabinet. 171 Found at Australian National Audit Office website www.anao.gov.au 172 See R Martin, 2005, ‘Trends in environmental prosecutions’ in 2 National Environmental Law Review 38; and R Baird, 2002, ‘Environmental prosecutions in Victoria – full benefit of amendments limited by prosecution structure’ in 19 EPLJ 83. 173 MW Toffel, Jodi L Short and M Oullet, 2012, ‘Reinforcing regulatory regimes: how states, civil society and codes of conduct promote adherence to global labour standards’, Harvard Business Review Working Paper no 13—45 published November 2012. 174 t he Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission released a report in 2009 , ‘A Sustainable Future for Victoria: Getting Environmental Regulation Right’ in which the Commissioner proposed a native vegetation regulator to address legislative deficiencies and conflicts, see http://www.vcec.vic.gov.au/CA256EAF001C7B21/WebObj/ASustainableFutureforVictoria- GettingEnvironmentalRegulationRight/$File/A%20Sustainable%20Future%20for%20Victoria%20 -%20Getting%20Environmental%20Regulation%20Right.pdf, accessed 14 September 2012. This report, in part, built on the earlier VCEC report (2005) Regulation and Regional Victoria: Challenges and Opportunities which recommended a number of changes to native vegetation regulation that were generally supported by the Government in a response published in December 2005. 175 t he Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission (VCEC), 2009, ‘A Sustainable Future for Victoria: Getting Environmental Regulation Right’, refers to a total of 43 Acts impacting environmental management, see http://www.vcec.vic.gov.au/ CA256EAF001C7B21/WebObj/ASustainableFutureforVictoria- GettingEnvironmentalRegulationRight/$File/A%20Sustainable%20Future%20for%20Victoria%20 -%20Getting%20Environmental%20Regulation%20Right.pdf, 176 See the VCEC report noted above and also M Brozgul, 2012, Biodiversity Resource Management in Victoria, unpublished graduate student study (CfES). Case studies included in this work suggest that collaboration between community and government has the potential to improve biodiversity protection in Victoria.

126 177 the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) undertook an audit (Number 43) and produced Performance Information for Commonwealth Financial Assistance under the Natural Heritage Trust. The ANAO found that the Natural Heritage Trust outcomes had been significantly compromised by (a) a variation in reporting amongst states and territories, (b) the absence of baseline data, (c) the need for appropriate, quantifiable targets, and (d) significant delays in project completion. See http://www.anao.gov.au/~/media/Uploads/Documents/2000%2001_audit_report_43.pdf, accessed 14 September 2012. 178 cSIRO, NCCARF and the Commonwealth Government Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, 2012, Marine Climate Change. Impacts and Adaptation Report Card Australia 2012 found at http://www.oceanclimatechange.org.au/content/index.php/2012/home/ accessed on 22 September 2012. 179 e.S. Poloczanska, A.J. Hobday and A.J. Richardson (Eds) (2012). Marine Climate Change in Australia, Impacts and Adaptation Responses. 2012 Report Card. ISBN 978-0-643-10927-8 180 Invertebrate Ecology Services, Australian Museum, http://australianmuseum.net.au/Invertebrate- Ecology-Services. 181 this has been an issue over time, see DL Hawksworth, 1991, ‘The fungal dimension of biodiversity: magnitude, significance, and conservation’ in Mycological Research,95: 6, 641–655; and for a recent text on the rationale for the need see MS Foster and GF Bills, 2004, Biodiversity of fungi: inventory and monitoring, Academic Press. 182 http://www.bushblitz.org.au/documents /Bush_Blitz_MR_20110329... 183 http://www.nedscorner.com.au/index.php 184 See the site for details – found at http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/conservation-and-environment/biodiversity/natureprint, accessed 22 september 2012. 185 Submissions are being made to the Future Directions for Native Vegetation Consultation Draft 2012 www.dse.vic.gov.au but these have not at this stage been published. However, it should be noted that NaturePrint extracts data from the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas (VBA) for some of its products. The VBA is informed by local knowledge. 186 http://www.ala.org.au/ 187 I D Lunt, LM Winsemius, SP McDonald, JW Morgan, and RL Dehaan, 2010, ‘How widespread is woody plant encroachment in temperate Australia? Changes in woody vegetation cover in lowland woodland and coastal ecosystems in Victoria from 1989 to 2005. Journal of Biogeography, 37: 722-732. 188 http://www.tern.org.au/Newsletter-2012-Sept-LTERNMalleeDynamics-pg23530.html accessed 22 September 2012 and for a straight forward outline of the work being done see http://www.isr.qut.edu.au/eresearch/downloads/tern_poster.pdf. Further, for Victoria look at the Monash University Land Ecosystems Atmosphere Programs (LEAP) at Whroo near Shepparton found at http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ges/research/climate/whroo/ and at Wombat near Ballarat found at http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ges/research/climate/wombat/. 189 details can be found at http://www.tern-supersites.net.au/ accessed on 22 September 2012. 190 the Report of proceedings can be found at http://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=cop-11 accessed on 8 February 2013. 191 this relates to the genes or DNA sequences with a known location on a chromosome that can be used to identify individuals or species. 192 See the following collection of articles on this reclamation effort. A Weeks, T Kelly, D Griffiths, D Heinze and I Mansergh, 2012, The genetic rescue of the mountain pygmy-possum at Mt Buller. Report to Department of Sustainability & Environment, CEASR, University of Melbourne; and A Weeks, D Heinze, T Kelly and I Mansergh, 2011, Wild translocation of mountain pygmy possums for the genetic rescue of the Mount Buller population Report to DSE Melbourne, Victoria; RD Van der Ree, M Heinze, M. McCarthy and I. Mansergh. 2009, ‘Wildlife Tunnel Enhances Population Viability’, in Ecology and Society 14 (2): 7 http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art7/ 193 p Mitrovski, AA Hoffmann, DA Heinze and AR Weeks, 2008, ‘Rapid Loss of Genetic Variation in an Endangered Possum’ in Biology Letters, 4, 134-138. 194 ar Weeks, CM Sgro, AG Young, R Frankham, NJ Mitchell, KA Miller, M Byrne, DJ Coates, MDB Eldridge, P Sunnucks, MF Breed, EA James and AA Hoffmann, 2011, ‘Assessing the benefits and risks of translocations in changing environments: a genetic perspective’ in Evolutionary Applications, 4, 709-725.

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195 Sarah Maclagan, Mark Cairns, 2008, Biolinks Project Action Plan: Linking Habitats across the Western Port Catchment Central Region found at http://www.cecinc.net.au/images/stories/CEC_Biolinks_Project_Action_Plan_2008_-_Web.pdf, accessed 22 September 2012. 196 note the recent work of the GBCMA on socio-ecological systems and the scholarship which has been generated in recent years includes – B Walker, A Kinzig, JM Andries and P Ryan eds., 2006, Exploring resilience in social-ecological systems. Comparative studies and theory development, Ecology and Society, Special Issue found at http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/issues/view.php?sf=22; F Berkes, J Colding, C Folke, eds., 2003, Navigating social-ecological systems. Building resilience for complexity and change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. And for a recent article about a narrowing of socio- ecological theory applications see, Örjan Bodin and Maria Tengö, ‘Disentangling intangible social–ecological systems’ in www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378012000179 197 note the recent CSIRO Report http://www.csiro.au/Organisation-Structure/Flagships/Climate-Adaptation-Flagship/adapt- national-reserve-system.aspx 198 da Fordham, HR Akcakaya, MB Araujo, J Elith, DA Keith, R Pearson, TD Auld, C Mellin, JW Morgan, TJ Regan, M Tozer, MJ Watts, M White, BA Wintle, C Yates and BW Brook, 2012, ‘Plant Extinction Risk under Climate Change: Are Forecast Range Shifts alone a Good Indicator of Species Vulnerability to Global Warming?’ in Global Change Biology, 18: 1357-1371. 199 G Guerin, H Wen and A Lowe, 2012, ‘Leaf Morphology Shift Linked to Climate Change’ in Biology Letters, Doi: 10.1098/Rsbl.2012.0458. 200 B. Sinervo, F Méndez-De-La-Cruz, DB Miles, B Heulin, E Bastiaans, M Villagrán-Santa Cruz, RLara-Resendiz, N Martínez-Méndez, ML Calderon-Espinosa, RN Meza-Lázaro, H Gadsden, LJ Avila, M Morando, IJ De La Riva, PV Sepulveda, CFD Rocha, N Ibarguengoytía, CA Puntriano, M Massot, V Lepetz, TA Oksanen, DG Chapple, AM Bauer, WR Branch, J Clobert and JW jnr Sites, 2010, ‘Erosion of Lizard Diversity by Climate Change and Altered Thermal Niches’ in Science, 328, 894-899. 201 For example see the following articles about Victoria: I Mansergh and B Doolan, 2012, ‘Potential impacts of climate change on alpine vegetation. The Victorian International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) and associated projects – 2004-2012: Management and policy implications of the science’, Report of DSE and Parks Victoria, Melbourne; I Mansergh, 2010, ‘North Central Victoria: Climate change and land use: Potential for third century in a timeless land’ in Proc. Roy Soc. Vict.122 (2): 161-183; I Mansergh, 2010, ‘Perceptions of weeds in changing contexts. Land-use change, landscape value change and climate change in south-eastern Australia: adaptation to change in the third century of a timeless land’ in Plant Protection Quarterly 254 (4):173-185 http://www.weedinfo.com.au/ppq_abs25/ppq_25-4-173.html; I Mansergh, 2009, ‘Weeds and landscapes under climate and land-use change – between wombats and wedgies’, 4th Biennial Victorian Weed Conference Proceedings, Weed Society of Victoria, Melbourne; I Mansergh, A Lau and R Anderson, 2008, ‘Geographic landscape visualisation in planning adaptation to climate change in Victoria, Australia’, in C Pettit, William Cartwright, I Bishop, K Lowell, D Pullar, D Duncan, eds., 2008, Landscape Analysis and Visualisation. Lecturer Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography Series, Springer, Berlin found at http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-3-540-69167-9?sortorder=asc&p_o=20; I Mansergh and D Cheal, 2007, ‘Protected area planning and management for eastern Australian temperate forests and woodland ecosystems under climate change – a landscape approach’ in M Taylor and P Figgis, eds., Protected areas: buffering against climate change : Proceedings of a WWF and IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Symposium, WWF Australia, Sydney. 202 community or citizen science plays a critical role in the conservation of biodiversity. Citizen science is discussed in more detail in other CfES reports found at www.ces.vic.gov.au . 203 http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/biodiversity/what.asp. 204 In F Jiguet et al, 2010, ‘French citizens monitoring ordinary birds provide tools for conservation and ecological sciences’, found in http://vincent.devictor.free.fr/Articles/Jiguet%20et%20al_in%20press.pdf. 205 See LAO Fernandez, L Paz B., LA Mazariegos, A Cortes and F Salazar, 2010, ‘Articulating local visions to build macro-corridors: the Munchique Pinche example’, in GL Worboys, WL Francis and M Lockwood, 2010, Connectivity conservation management a global guide (with particular reference to mountain connectivity conservation), earthscan, London @ page 223; and Michael Lockwood, 2010, ‘Scoping the territory: considerations for connectivity conservation managers’, in Worboys, Francis and Lockwood (cited above) @ page 45. 206 http://www.strathbogierangescmn.com/valuable-partnership-with-euroa-arboretum/ and http:// www.gbcma.vic.gov.au/ 207 For one example of the discussion of socio-ecological systems thinking see LH Gunderson, SR Carpenter, C Folke, P Olsson and G Peterson, 2006, ‘Water RATS (resilience, adaptability and transformability) in lake and wetland socio-ecological systems’ in http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/issues/view.php?sf=22

128 208 http://wda.org.au/index.php?option=com_attachments&task=download&id=77 209 BH Walker and D. Salt, 2006, Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems And People In A Changing World, Washington DC, Island Press. 210 d Ludwig, BH Walker and CS Holling, 2002, ‘Models and Metaphors Of Sustainability, Stability, And Resilience’, in LH Gunderson and L Pritchard, eds., Resilience and Behaviour of Large Scale Systems. Washington: Island Press. 211 For an illustration of what this natural reserve system is go to http://www.nrm.gov.au/funding/business-plan/12-13/priorities/nrs/index.html. 212 M Dunlop DW Hilbert, S Ferrier A House, A Liedloff SM Prober A Smyth TG Martin T Harwood KJ Williams C Fletcher and H Murphy, 2012, The Implications of Climate Change for Biodiversity Conservation and the National Reserve System: Final Synthesis. A report prepared for the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, and the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship, Canberra. 213 there are a plethora of Australian and international examples of how governments are working with private landholders to deliver environmental outcomes. See leading Australian expert opinion at http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/pubs/birds-08.pdf, http://www. fullerlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Taylor-et-al-in-press.pdf, http://aeda.edu.au/docs/2011_Watson_etal_EvaluatingThreatenedSpeciesRecoveryPlan.pdf. For case studies demonstrating the utility of these partnerships, see M Brozgul 2012 Biodiversity Resource Management in Victoria (unpublished report compiled for the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental sustainability, Victoria). In the US, the Federal Farm Bill provides incentives for private management of land leading to environmental outcomes, see http://www.defenders.org/publications/conserving_habitat_through_the_federal_farm_bill.pdf. The countryside management scheme in the UK provides similar incentives see http://www.dardni.gov.uk/ruralni/index/environment/countrysidemanagement.htm and http://www.dardni.gov.uk/ruralni/index/environment/countrysidemanagement/pubs/cmbpress/ cmbpress05/restoring_arable_farming.htm. In South Africa see the work being done in the Biodiversity conservation and sustainable development project which is emblematic of other international work and which can be accessed at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/ NEWS/0,,contentMDK:23169150~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html. 214 International Union for the Conservation of Nature – World Commission on Protected Areas 2005- 2012 Strategic Plan IUCN Gland found at http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/strategicplan0512.pdf accessed 25 September 2012. and also see N Dudley and J Parish, 2005, Closing the gap, creating ecologically representative Protected Area Systems: a guide to conducting gap assessments of Protected Area Systems for the Convention on Biological Diversity, Technical Series no 24, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal. 215 c Cocklin, N Mautner, J Dibden, 2007, Public policy, private landholders: Perspectives on policy mechanisms for sustainable land management, Journal of Environmental Management 85: pp 986–998. 216 http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/conservation-and-environment/biodiversity/communities-for-nature- grant-program. And see http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/125787/CforNature_Guidelines_FA_R_ WEB-final.pdf for the funding guidelines for this program. the program is described in this way – ‘the Communities for Nature grants program seeks to: • support practical community action to deliver measurable environmental outcomes; • support community groups and volunteers undertaking works of primarily an environmental nature; and • support communities with relevant and timely information to assess priorities at the local level to determine the best returns in undertaking on-ground works’. 217 the complete list of projects which received funding in this round can be found at http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/conservation-and-environment/biodiversity/communities-for-nature- grant-program 218 See the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 Action Statement for the red tailed black cockatoo which can be found at http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/103178/037_Red-tailed_Black- Cockatoo_2006.pdf. This is a species which also attracts commonwealth protection with a National Recovery Plan (2006). 219 the list of these grants over time can be found at http://www.environment. http://www. environment.gov.au/about/programs/gvesho/funding.htmlgov.au/about/programs/gvesho/ funding.html. Benefits flow to organisations like Environment Victoria, Environs Kimberley, Friends of the Earth and Friends of the Koala, Men of the Trees and the Merri Creek Management Committee Inc. and also see Caring for our Country at http://www.nrm.gov.au/funding/cag/index.html.

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220 Australia State of the Environment Report 2011 found at http://www.environment.gov.au/soe/2011/report/marine-environment/references.html accessed 22 September 2012 221 ibid 222 http://www.environment.gov.au/land/publications/forestpolicy/pubs/fcf-performance.pdf and http://www.nrm.gov.au/resources/publications/stewardship/pubs/esp-review.pdf accessed on 10 September 2012, accessed 18 September 2012. 223 SoE 2008 page 252, Recommendation LBO 1 that the Victorian government prioritise investment in incentives, allocating funding for priority development and expansion of eco-markets ‘which encourage multiple environmental outcomes from improved vegetation management services’. 224 Kilter, Nature Conservancy Australia Report, page 164. http://www.bushheritage.org.au/what_we_do/conservation_partnerships. Note the sites reserved in Victoria by Bush Heritage, the John Colahan Griffin Nature Reserve, which has never been cleared, supports the Stuart Mill Spider Orchid and the Red Cross Spider Orchid (supported by DSE) and the Judith Eardley Nardoo Hills reserve is the site of the re-emergence of the greenhood orchid which was understood to be extinct, not having been seen since 1941 until it was located on the reserve. 225 drawing an erroneous distinction between public and private lands, suggesting that those public lands which only provide us with ecosystem services are not productive, when clearly they are. 226 See the commentaries contained in Many Publics in particular the comments of members of Project Platypus in the chapter relating to the Wimmera found at www.ces.vic.gov.au 227 M Verweij and M Thompson, eds., 2011, Clumsy solutions for a complex world. Governance, politics and plural perceptions, Palgrave Macmillan, London. 228 the significance of involving stakeholders in conservation is cited as a fundamental consideration across a wide range of scholarship – World Wildlife Fund 2000 Stakeholder collaboration: Building bridges for conservation, WWF, US, Washington DC, USA and SA Moore, SF Jennings and WH Tacey, 20001, ‘Achieving sustainable natural resource management outcomes on the ground: the key elements of stakeholder involvement, in Australian Journal of Environmental Management, 8, 91-98. And see JEM Watson,MC Botrill, JC Walsh, LN Josephy and HP Possingham, 2011, Evaluating species recovery planning in Australia, Prepared on behalf of the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts by the Spatial Ecology Laboratory, UQ, Brisbane chapter 7. 229 See the site http://www.dookie.unimelb.edu.au/biolinks/ 230 amongst the factors, in no particular order, are short term input costs, impacts on profits in the medium to long term, impacts on other parts of the system, adjustment costs, risk impacts, compatibility with other technology in use, complexity, costs of the traditional practices, impacts on family life, brand loyalty, self image, the perception of the environmental credibility of the new system, and government policies which may support or detract from possibilities for change. Pannell et al (2006) found adoption occurs when an innovation will support the landholder achieving personal goals, which may include economic, social and environmental goals. Innovations in conservation have a higher probability of adoption when they have a high relative advantage (ie the innovation is perceived to be better than the idea or practice it replaces), and when they are trialable (easy to test and learn about before adoption). See D. J. Pannell, G. R. Marshall, N. Barr, A. Curtis, F. Vanclay and R. Wilkinson, 2006 ‘Understanding and promoting adoption of conservation practices by rural landholders’ in Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 46(1431) 1407–1424 found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/EA05037 and also see the collected essays in the work of D Pannell and F Varclay, eds., 2011, Changing land management. Adoption of new practices by rural landholders, CSIRO Publishing. 231 c Cocklin, N Mautner, J Dibden, 2007, ‘Public policy, private landholders: Perspectives on policy mechanisms for sustainable land management’, in Journal of Environmental Management 85: pp 986–998. 232 the need to specifically avoid triggering a ‘large number of unnecessary permit applications’ was a matter of concern for town planners and others in the consultations which underpinned the City of Greater Bendigo and Campaspe Shire Study, RMCG Consulting 2009, City of Greater Bendigo and Campaspe Shire. North Central Biolinks: Principles and Approaches, Final Report December 2009. For the depth of discussion about ‘lightening’ the regulatory obligations see E Papadakis and R Grnat 2003, ‘The politics of ‘Light-handed regulation’: ‘New’ environmental policy instruments in Australia in 12 Environmental Politics 27; and the work of N Gunningham, RA Kagan and D Thornton, 2003, Shades of green: business, regulation and environment, Stanford University Press. 233 the need for policy and program continuity to encourage farming families and other community member commitment was a refrain we heard across the state when we toured and listened to people in the regions. This observation is picked up in the report of that work, Many Publics. Participation, inventiveness and change found at www.ces.vic.gov.au.

130 234 national targets in Australia’s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy 2010-2030 place emphasis on the role of private landholders in achieving conservation outcomes. The ten targets can be viewed here: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/strategy-2010-30/index.html, accessed 14 September 2012. For example - ‘By 2015, achieve a 25% increase in the number of Australians and public and private organisations who participate in biodiversity conservation activities’. 235 For international commentary which has relevance across the sector see Sven Wunder, 2005, ‘Payments for environmental services: some nuts and bolts’, Occasional Paper no 42, Centre for International Forestry Research found at http://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/OccPapers/OP-42.pdf 236 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/30si.pdf. 237 See http://www.nrm.gov.au/resources/publications/stewardship/pubs/esp-review.pdf accessed on 10 September 2012. 238 his criticisms are made in ‘Putting a price on the rivers and rain diminishes us all’ found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/06/price-rivers-rain-greatest-privatisation? cat=commentisfree&type=article 239 S Whitten and D Shelton, 2005, ‘Market for ecosystem services in Australia: practical design and case studies’, paper for CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation and Joint Venture Agroforestry Program, found at http://www.cifor.org/pes/publications/pdf_files/Whitten-Australia.pdf 240 For a good example of the level of detail necessary to critique the system see B Kelsey Jack, C Kousky and KRE Sims, 2008, ‘Designing payments for ecosystem services: lessons from previous experience with incentive-based mechanisms’, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the U S A, 2008 July 15; 105(28): 9465–9470, published online 2008 July 9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0705503104 PMCID: PMC2474507 241 See OECD, 2012, Paying for biodiversity. Enhancing the cost-effectiveness of payments for ecosystems services found at http://www.oecd.org/env/biodiversitywaterandnaturalresourcemanagement/46135424.pdf 242 Blackman A, and R. Woodward, 2010, User Financing in a National Payments for Environmental Services Program: Costa Rican Hydropower, Resources for the Future, Washington DC. A comprehensive introduction to PES can be found at http://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/OccPapers/OP-42.pdf. See the Ecosystem Services Blog If or recent initiatives, found at http://blog.ecosystem-services.org/ All web addresses cited above were accessed on 14 September 2012. 243 co-chairs summary of an International Workshop convened by the OECD, World Bank, GEF, and the European Commission, together with Sweden and India, 2012, Finance Mechanisms for Biodiversity: 244 Examining Opportunities and Challenges found at http://www.oecd.org/env/ biodiversitywaterandnaturalresourcemanagement/Finance%20Mechanisms%20for%20 Biodiversity_Chairs%20Summary_Montreal%20Workshop.pdf 245 V CEC, 2009, A sustainable future for Victoria: getting environmental regulation right found at http://www.vcec.vic.gov.au/CA256EAF001C7B21/WebObj/ASustainableFutureforVictoria- GettingEnvironmentalRegulationRight/$File/A%20Sustainable%20Future%20for%20Victoria%20 -%20Getting%20Environmental%20Regulation%20Right.pdf @ page xxviii accessed on 22 September 2012. 246 See http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_ id=6524§ion=home, http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/ethics-and-environmentalism-costa- ricas-lesson/, http://www.oas.org/dsd/EnvironmentalServ.htm, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/21644457, see cifor draft document, found at http://www.cifor.org/pes/publications/ pdf_files/Costa_Rica_paper.pdf 247 http://www.paxnatura.org/CostaRicanPESProgram.htm. Note that the programs offered in Costa Rica are ‘centralised’ compared with those across other parts of Latin America, notably Ecuador, which runs ‘decentralised’ operations (M Albans and S Wunder, nd, (post 2005), ‘Payment for environmental services at the local level: comparing two cases in Ecuador’, found at http://www.cifor.org/pes/publications/pdf_files/Ecuador_paper.pdf). 248 See http://www.theriverstrust.org/seminars/archive/water/WRT_WATER_PES_Guide_27-06-12_ A3.pdf 249 See Michael Winer et al, 2012 Markets on Aboriginal Land in Cape York Peninsula: Potential and Constraints http://cyi.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/UN-Paper.pdf.

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250 carbon Tender was a pilot program which has ended. The DSE website carries this commentary – ‘The $2.3m CarbonTender project was initiated under the 2002 Victorian Greenhouse Strategy and was an early Victorian example of a market-based mechanism used in the context of revegetation. The project used a competitive tender process to create agreed areas of local indigenous vegetation on private land. Unit prices of sequestered carbon were a key part of the assessment, but there was also a strong focus on other environmental benefits including biodiversity enhancement. The 2008-09 financial year marked five years since landowners were first approached to participate in the program. CarbonTender has resulted in 54 revegetation sites throughout Victoria with a total area of 362 hectares and an expected carbon dioxide sequestration of around 150,000 tonnes. At the end of the 2008-09 financial year, ten of the contracts had been completed. Revegetation on some sites has been very straightforward. However, most sites have been affected by adverse factors including the drought, native animal grazing and sometimes fire, resulting in the revegetation work being more difficult and costly. This has created difficulties for both landholders and DSE in ensuring the required standards are met. Nevertheless, good results have been achieved. CarbonTender has been a valuable pilot project that has generated much information on the potential availability of bio-sequestration sites in Victoria, the revegetation costs related to unit prices of carbon and management of the practical issues involved in revegetation to a high standard. This information will be put to good use in the lead up to the implementation of the national CPRS’. For a description of ecoMarkets in Victoria see http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/117225/4397-DSE-Introduction-Bro- chure-Final.pdf 251 For a broad but useful discussion of ecomarkets by G Stoneham, M Eigenraam, C Bardsley inter alia, see http://www.feralindia.org/drupal/content/economic-incentives-foster-conservation accessed 11 September 2012. 252 Marsden Jacob, 2010, Review of the Environmental Stewardship Program. A report prepared for DSEWPaC found at www.marsdenjacob.com.au and www.nrm.gov.au/resources/publications/stewardship/pubs/ esp-review.pdf and also see DSE 2009 BushTender Environmental Stewardship Report found at www.dse.vic.gov.au. 253 programs such as the Alcoa partnership which connects with other work in the west of the state provides an example of how market mechanisms will impact and potentially deliver better outcomes around carbon offsets see http://www.iie.org/Programs/Alcoa-Foundation-Advancing-Sustainability-Research/Biochar- and-Energy-from-Trees 254 o’Connor NRM Pty Ltd for DSE, 2009, ‘BushBroker Implementation – evaluation after two years of operation’, found at www.dse.vic.gov/_data/assets/pdf-file/O 255 Interestingly the ‘habitat hectare’ assessment process which underscores the determination of criteria appears to have overcome some of difficulties. This is even though it was described as ‘ambitious’ and the caution given that it required a level of skill and local knowledge, benchmarking with careful recording and that it should be used’ thoughtfully’ by its proponents, D Parkes, G Newell and D Cheal in 2003 when they published ‘Assessing the quality of native vegetation. The habitat hectares approach’ in Ecological Management and Restoration Vol 4 Supp Feb 2003. 256 charlie Plott, Veronika Nemes and Gary Stoneham, 2008, ‘Electronic BushBroker Exchange. Designing a combinational double auction for native vegetation offsets’ National MBI Pilot Program Round 2 Project Trial Report at www.marketbasedinstruments.gov.au/portal 257 V CEC, 2009, A sustainable future for Victoria: getting environmental regulation right found at http://www.vcec.vic.gov.au/CA256EAF001C7B21/WebObj/ASustainableFutureforVictoria- GettingEnvironmentalRegulationRight/$File/A%20Sustainable%20Future%20for%20Victoria%20 -%20Getting%20Environmental%20Regulation%20Right.pdf see submission 57, p. 21 @ page 173-4. 258 Future Directions for Native Vegetation in Victoria, found in http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/145528/Future-directions-Consultation- Paper-September-2012.pdf 259 a E Roth, 2009 ‘What have we Learned from Market Design?, Harvard University and the National Bureau of Economic Research (USA) 260 http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/conservation-and-environment/biodiversity/rural-landscapes/native- vegetation-exchange-trial 261 See Bass Coast Shire 2008-2013 Sustainability Plan at http://www.basscoast.vic.gov.au/getmedia/4e9d4792-9d90-45f0-b242-b82424c3e064/ BCSCESP2008Final.pdf, accessed 17 September 2012. 262 Found at http://www.maroondah.vic.gov.au/BiodiversityRate.aspx 263 See the ALGA website, Biodiversity and Vegetation Case Studies found at http://alga.asn. au/?ID=573http://alga.asn.au/?ID=573 accessed 29 September 2012 264 Found at http://www.busselton.wa.gov.au/files/biodiversity_incentives_summary.pdf accessed on 29 September 2012.

132 265 Rate Rebate Scheme for Native Vegetation Protection found at http://www.hobartcity.com.au/Environment/Rate_Rebate_Scheme_for_Native_Vegetation_ Protection 266 See the very recent publication T Edwards and c Ingvarson, 2012, perceptions and indis=cators of sustainability. A survey of Victorian local government, published and auspiced by the Melbourne University Sustainability Society Institute found at www.sustainable.unimelb.edu.au and see also the work of this Office –Choices, choices. Environmental and sustainability reporting in local government in Victoria, April 2011 found at www.ces.vic.gov.aus 267 In New South Wales the Environment Defenders Office has met the need for private landowners to access information about the extensive range of private incentives with a concise publication simply called A Guide to Private Conservation in NSW (2010). This publication can be found at http://www.edo.org.au/edonsw/site/pdf/pubs/100503private_conservation.pdf 268 the position for local governments is highly variable and complex. When the City of Greater Bendigo and Campaspe Shires undertook a study to identify potential sites for habitat corridors across the two municipalities in 2009 they illustrated this compellingly. The Victorian Planning Provisions govern the overall operations of councils, Municipal Strategic Statements, Vegetation Protection Overlays and Environmental Significance Overlays then attend to the finer detail of planning. Every council has a planning scheme and each scheme addresses the issues perceived to be important at the local level. Bendigo and Campaspe, notwithstanding their adjoining land masses, determined that very different biolink/biodiversity priorities operated. For Bendigo it was the protection of vegetation and for Campaspe the significant consideration was the issue of managing water. See RMCG, 2009, City of Greater Bendigo and Campaspe Shire. North Central Biolinks: Principles and Approaches, Final Report December 2009 found at www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/files/c6f3a937-6f4e-4ca0-b7e3-a0b600dd338a/North_Central_ Biolinks_Principles_and_Approaches_Report.pdf 269 See www.environment.nsw.gov.au. 270 K Georgiera, S Pagiola and P Deeks, 2003, ‘Paying for the environment services of protected areas: involving the private sector’, Paper presented to the 5th IUCN World Parks Congress Sustainable Finance Stream, Durban, IUCN, Gland. 271 I UCN, 1998, Economic values for protected areas. Guidelines for protected areas managers, IUCN Gland. See the discussion of the contracting arrangement found at http://www.watershedmarkets.org/casestudies/Costa_Rica_La_Esperanza_eng.html accessed on 25 September 2012. 272 M Echavarra and P Arroyo, 2004, ‘FONAG: A water based finance mechanism for the Condor Biosphere reserve in Ecuador’, in D Harmon and GL Worboys, eds., Managing mountain protected areas: challenges and responses for the 21st century, Andromeda Editrice, Colledara. 273 GL Worboys and WL Francis, 2010, ‘Themes and lessons from global experience in connectivity conservation’ in GL Worboys et al @ page 290. 274 Kellogg Brown & Root Pty Ltd (2012) Werribee River Biolink Action Plan. Prepared for LeadWest: iv 275 LeadWest (2001) Fact Sheet: Werribee River Biolink Action Plan Project, September 2011 276 LeadWest is a regional organisation for Melbourne’s west. It is governed by a ten-member Board of Directors comprising five local government representatives (Brimbank, Maribrynong, Melton, Moonee Valley and Wyndham), four elected by the corporate members and an independent chairperson. Source: http://www.leadwest.com.au/LeadWest/About-LeadWest Accessed: 21 November 2012 277 Kellogg Brown & Root Pty Ltd (2012) Werribee River Biolink Action Plan. Prepared for LeadWest: 4-7 to 4-13 278 With the exception of the Lower Werribee River, private land owners are identified as a key stakeholder. 279 Kellogg Brown & Root Pty Ltd (2011) Werribee River Biolink Action Plan – Desktop Report. Prepared for LeadWest: 3-14 280 department of Sustainability and Environment (2012) Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 – Threatened List. July 2012 281 Kellogg Brown & Root Pty Ltd (2012) Werribee River Biolink Action Plan. Prepared for LeadWest: 5-30 282 See Ian Lunt’s Ecological Research Site, 2011, ‘Precious regeneration or woody weeds?’ found at http://ianluntresearch.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/precious-regeneration-or-woody-weeds/. 283 G Worboys, 2010, ‘The Connectivity Conservation Imperative’ and C Chester and J Hilty, 2010, ‘Connectivity Science’ and G Anderson et al, 2010, ‘Australian Connectivity Initiative’, all collected in G Worboys, W Francis and M Lockwood, eds., 2010, Connectivity Conservation Management: A Global Guide, With Particular Reference to Mountain Connectivity Conservation, earthscan, London.

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284 JJ Tewksbury, DJ Levey, NM Haddad, S Sargent, JL Orrock, A Weldon, BJ Danielson, J Brinkerhoff, EI Damschen and P Townsend, 2002, ‘Corridors affect plants, animals, and their interactions in fragmented landscapes’, PNAS 99 no 20 pp12923-12926. and see I Mansergh, 2012 in press, Biolinks – a changing land-use for a changing climate. In Fitzsimmons J ed. Linking Australia’s Landscapes: Lessons and opportunities from large-scale conservation, CSIRO, Melbourne; Mansergh IM, Cheal D & Fitzsimons JA, 2008, ‘Future landscapes in south-eastern Australia: the role of protected areas and biolinks in adaptation to climate change’ in Biodiversity 9 3& 4: 59-70. http://nstl1.nstl.gov.cn/pages/2008/173/00/9(3-4).pdf; I Mansergh. D Cheal and N Amos, 2005, ‘Biolinks the Journey’ Paper in Greenhouse Gamble – Conference: Sydney. 285 JA Hilty, WZ Lidiker and AA Merenlender, 2006, Corridor ecology: the science versus practice of linking landscapes for biodiversity conservation, Island Press, Washington; AB Anderson and CN Jenkins, 2006, Applying nature’s design: corridors as a strategy for biodiversity conservation, in Columbia University Press, NY; G Bennett and KJ Mulonjoy, 2006, Review of experiences with ecological networks, corridors and buffer zones, Technical Series no 23 Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal; K Crooks and M Sanjayan, eds., 2006, Connectivity conservation, Cambridge University Press NY; D Lindenmayer and J Fischer, 206, Habitat fragmentation and landscape change: an ecological and conservation synthesis, CSIRO Publishing Melbourne. 286 http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/wildlife-corridors/. See B Mackey et al Ecosystem greenspots: identifying potential drought, fire and climate change micro-refuges for a discussion of appropriate biolinks planning methodologies http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/11-1479.1 accessed on 14 September 2012. For a Victorian regional perspective see I Mansergh, 2010, ‘North central Victoria – climate change and land-use: potentials for third century in a timeless land’. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 122(2): 161-183. 287 a Haslem and AF Bennett, 2011, ‘Countryside Vegetation Provides Supplementary Habitat at the Landscape Scale for Woodland Birds in Farm Mosaics’ in Biodiversity and Conservation, 20, 2225-2242. 288 See the work by Sarah Maclagan and contributing author Mark Cairns, 2008, Biolinks Project Action Plan: Linking Habitats across the Western Port Catchment Central Region found at http://www.cecinc.net.au/images/stories/CEC_Biolinks_Project_Action_Plan_2008_-_Web.pdf, accessed 22 September 2012. 289 dnre, 2000, Restoring Our Catchments – Victoria’s Draft Native Vegetation Management Framework. Melbourne, superceded by DNRE 2002 Victoria’s Native Vegetation Management – A Frameowrk for Action. 290 a. Bennett, 1999, Linkages in the landscape. The role of corridors and connectivity in wildlife conservation, IUCN and the World Conservation Union. 291 d Freudenberger, 1999, Guidelines for Enhancing Grassy Woodlands for the Vegetation Investment Project. CSIRO Wildlife and Ecology, Canberra. 292 commonwealth SoE 2011. 293 S Whitten, David Freudenberger, Carina Wyborn, Veronica Doerr, Erice Doerr, Art Lanston, 2011, A compendium of existing and planned Australian wildlife corridor projects and initiatives, and case study analysis of operational experience, a report for the Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. Also see B Mackey et al, 2010, 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 http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/nature/ccandger.pdf accessed 10 September 2012. For CSIRO’s perspective on the Federal ‘Draft National Wildlife Corridors Plan’ see http:// www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/wildlife-corridors/consultation/submissions/pubs/csiro. pdf, accessed on 10 September 2012. 294 See the work put together for the Cotton Community CRC found at http://www.cottoncrc.org.au/files/235c3061-be81-494f-bf49-9a... 295 See the Cotton Community CRC site for a list of all the benefits achieved by cultivating messy habitat for native species, found at http://www.cottoncrc.org.au/industry/Publications/Pests_ and_Beneficials/Cotton_Insect_Pest_and_Beneficial_Guide/Sustainable_Cotton_Landscapes/ Principle_4___birds__bats 296 See the work by Sarah Maclagan and contributing author Mark Cairns, 2008, Biolinks Project Action Plan: Linking Habitats across the Western Port Catchment Central Region found at http://www.cecinc.net.au/images/stories/CEC_Biolinks_Project_Action_Plan_2008_-_Web.pdf, accessed 22 September 2012. 297 See http://www.sgln.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18:on-ground- waterway-and-biodiversity-works&catid=3 and PR Bird, 1998, ‘Tree windbreaks and shelter benefits to pastures in temperate grazing systems’ inAgroforestry Systems 41: 35-54. (and other papers in that volume); PR Bird, D Bicknell, PA Bulman, SJA Burke, JF Leys, JN Parker, FJ van der Sommen and P Voller, 1992, ‘The role of shelter in Australia for protecting soils, plants and livestock’ in Agroforestry Systems18: 59-86. 298 http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/forestry/private-land-forestry/on-farm-benefits/the-benefits-of-using- indigenous-plants

134 299 note here the very recent work done in the Strathbogie Ranges by the Ruffy community who are compiling their Community Action Plan 2012. Whilst the Action Plan is not ostensibly about sustainability many of the local participants are raising this as a core or ancillary issue which should receive particular attention in the plan itself ( Janet Hagen, 2012, pers comm). The only issues which received more affirmation were a fairer rate system and the need for more cultural events. Rubbish collection, roads and medical services featured as much less important issues for the 50-60 people who attended the meeting to discuss the plan. 300 representative of a wide cross section of sustainability scholars Graham Harris suggests that a ‘broad policy mix’ will be necessary to get to sustainable resource management outcomes (2007, Seeking sustainability in an age of complexity Cambridge University Press NY). Further, there is an ever-growing scholarship which urges interdisciplinarity as the intellectual template for getting to change in the way we understand and work with our environment (see VA Brown, JA Harris and JY Russell, 2010, Tackling wicked problems through interdisciplinary imagination, earthscan, London). 301 K Stothers, Carla Miles, K Brunt, D Robinson and M Cotter, 2007, ‘Vegetation Incentive Analysis: comparing vegetation incentive schemes within the dryland of the Goulburn Broken Catchment. Stage one report on findings to the Dryland Landscape Strategy Working group’ (accessed from GBCMA) and K Stothers, C Miles and D Rbinson, 2008, ‘Vegetation Incentive Analysis for the Goulburn Broken Dryland. Satge 2 report and recommendations’ (accessed from the GBCMA). 302 Living community and landscapes: Buloke woodlands of the Wimmera, a collaboration of bankmecu, Trust for Nature, Landcare Australia Ltd, DSE, Greening Australia and Kowree Farm Tree Group and the Grampians to Little Desert Biolink. 303 www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/wildlife-corridors/consultation/index.html. 304 the example used is the Western Australian ‘dog fence’. 305 debbie Sanders, Don Driscoll, Pia Lentini, Sam Banks, Kevin MacFarlane and Carina Wyborn, 2012, Draft National Wildlife Corridors plan – Comments, found at www.environment.gov.au/ biodiversity/wildlife-corridors/consultation/index.html. 306 Kelly Garbach, Mark Lubell, Fabrice AJ De Clerk, 2012, ‘Payment for ecosystem services: the role of positive incentives and information sharing in stimulating adoption of silvopastoral conservation practices’, in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment vol 156, 2012 pp 27-36 found at www.secincedirect.com/science/article/pii/SO167880912001600 307 professor Ben Boer, Emeritus professor, Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, ‘Submission on Draft National Wildlife Corridors Plan’ found at www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/wildlife-corridors/consultation/index.html. 308 dr Graeme Worboys provided his credentials when making this submission. He is the lead author and editor of IUCN’s 2010 Connectivity Conservation Management book, provided a background report on connectivity conservation for the 2011 Australian State of the Environment Report and sat as co-chair for the Social and institutional Working Group of the National Wildlife Corridors Advisory Group. 309 See Adrian Phillips (formerly the Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (1994- 200), ‘Turning ideas on their head – the new paradigm for Protected Areas’, found at www.uvm.edu/conservationlectures/vermont.pdf 310 Law No 9.985, 18 July 2000, establishing the National System of Nature Conservation Units 311 Muska Kechika management Area Act 1998 312 act on the Protection of Baedku Daegan Mountain System 2003 313 Law on Protected areas 1993, as amended in 1995 314 Federal Nature Conservation Act 2002 315 royal Government of Bhutan Decree, November 1999, enabling the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex 316 Supreme Decree No 24453, approving the General Regulation of the Forestry Law, no 1799 of 12 July 1996. 317 armelle Guignier and Alastair Rieu-Clarke, 2012, ‘Country Report: Vietnam. Payment for Environmental Services’, in IUCN Academy of Environmental law e-journal issue 2012 (1) @ p251-259, discussing the environmental legal framework including Law on Forest Protection and Development in 2004, Law on Environmental Protection in 2005, Law on Biodiversity in 2008 and Decree no 99/2010/ND_CP of 24 September 2010 (Policy for Payment of Forest Environmental Services 2010) found at http://www.iucnael.org/en/documents/doc_download/922-ej2012- 318 peter Shadie and Patricia Moore, IUCN The World Conservation Union, nd, Connectivity Conservation: International Experience in Planning, Establishment and Management of Biodiversity Corridors, Background Paper found at http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/070723_bci_international_report_final.pdf 319 http://www.iucn.org/news_homepage/all_news_by_theme/?11614/Connectivity-Conservation- Workshop-in-Bonn 320 this will require collaborate across jurisdictions in formal and informal ways. The Henry Review suggested the need to spread primary production tax benefits to conservation properties and develop tax incentives which promote environmental benefits, ensuring ‘targeted spending programs’ (Recommendation 60 of the ‘Henry Review’, 2010, The Report on Australia’s Future Tax System). The question of tax and subsidies is a whole other paper.

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