Species of City-wide Significance for Conservation (2016 Update) Final Report June 2016 CITY OF GOLD COAST Speciesecology of City-wide Significance/ vegetation for Conservation / wildlife (2016 Update) / aquatic ecologyecosure / GIS.com.au | i Executive summary The City of Gold Coast engaged Ecosure Pty Ltd to undertake a review of the 2012 species of city-wide significance for conservation list and develop a decision-framework for prioritising species for future conservation management actions. Through a review of the existing criteria, updating the legislative status and scoring the base list of species for the Gold Coast local government area against the revised criteria, a draft list of city-wide significant species was established. An expert panel review of the draft species list resulted in a final city-wide significant species list containing 572 flora and 160 fauna species, from a base species list containing 1,952 vascular and legislatively significant non-vascular flora and 609 vertebrate and legislatively significant invertebrate fauna species. This species list will be used by the City to create a priority species list as part of a priority species management program. Part of the scope of this present project has been to review various frameworks to assess priorities. After an in-depth literature review and consultative process, Ecosure recommended the Back on Track Phase II methods as a suitable decision- support framework for the City. Customisation of the Back on Track Phase II methods to suit the City’s requirements are summarised in Section 3.6 of this report. Section 4 provides recommendations which have arisen during the course of this project and include for example, the timeframe for future reviews of the city-wide significant species list and decision-support framework criteria, items for consideration in future reviews and suggestions for the subsequent application of the species list. Species of City-wide Significance for Conservation (2016 Update) ecosure.com.au | ii Glossary, acronyms and abbreviations BAMM Biodiversity Assessment and Mapping Methodology BoT Back on Track species prioritisation program the City City of Gold Coast CWS Species of city-wide significance (for conservation) DEHP Department of Environment and Heritage Protection EPBC Act Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 IBRA Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature LGA Local government area NC Act Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992 PPP Project prioritisation protocol SEQ bioregion South Eastern Queensland bioregion (under IBRA 7) Species of City-wide Significance for Conservation (2016 Update) ecosure.com.au | iii Contents Executive summary ................................................................................................................ii Glossary, acronyms and abbreviations.................................................................................. iii List of figures ........................................................................................................................vi List of tables ..........................................................................................................................vi 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Project background ................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Scope ..................................................................................................................... 2 2 Species of city-wide significance for conservation .......................................................... 3 2.1 Base species list ..................................................................................................... 3 2.2 Criteria review ......................................................................................................... 3 2.3 Criteria application .................................................................................................. 6 Conservation status ......................................................................................... 6 Number of records ........................................................................................... 6 Distribution ....................................................................................................... 7 Endemism ........................................................................................................ 7 2.4 Scoring ................................................................................................................... 7 2.5 Threshold score ...................................................................................................... 8 2.6 Workshop - reviewing the draft CWS species list .................................................... 9 2.7 Additional Expert Panel decisions ......................................................................... 10 2.8 Final CWS lists ..................................................................................................... 10 3 Decision-support framework to prioritise species ......................................................... 12 3.1 Literature review ................................................................................................... 12 3.2 Consultation .......................................................................................................... 13 3.3 Literature review findings ...................................................................................... 13 Back on Track species prioritisation framework ............................................. 13 Moreton Bay Regional Council Priority Species ............................................. 16 WWF priority species ..................................................................................... 18 UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species list .............................................. 18 Nature Conservancy: Conservation by Design ............................................... 19 Project prioritisation protocol .......................................................................... 19 3.4 Overview of decision-support frameworks ............................................................. 20 Species of City-wide Significance for Conservation (2016 Update) ecosure.com.au | iv 3.5 Preferred options for a decision-support framework: The revised Back on Track Phase II methods ............................................................................................................ 21 Input species.................................................................................................. 21 Criteria ........................................................................................................... 22 Scoring .......................................................................................................... 22 Weightings ..................................................................................................... 22 Priority groupings ........................................................................................... 23 3.6 Recommended decision-support framework ......................................................... 23 Input species.................................................................................................. 24 Criteria ........................................................................................................... 25 Scoring .......................................................................................................... 28 Weightings ..................................................................................................... 29 Priority groupings ........................................................................................... 29 Expert input ................................................................................................... 29 Review period ................................................................................................ 30 Prioritising management actions .................................................................... 30 4 Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 31 4.1 Species of city-wide significance for conservation ................................................. 31 4.2 Decision-support framework for prioritising species .............................................. 32 5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 34 References ......................................................................................................................... 35 Appendix 1 Base species list......................................................................................... 37 Appendix 2 City of Gold Coast stakeholder feedback on revised criteria ....................... 38 Appendix 3 Workshop attendees .................................................................................. 41 Appendix 4 CWS fauna species list.............................................................................. 42 Appendix 5 CWS flora species list ................................................................................ 47 Appendix 6 Species assessment spreadsheets ...........................................................