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Only One PlanetOnly One Planet

Janet Stein

Centre for Resource and Environmental StudiesAustralian National University

Jon Nevill

Only One Planet Australia

IdentifyingAustralia’s protected rivers

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• Thirty-page paper at www.onlyoneplanet.com.au• PhD thesis (Janet Stein ANU - in preparation)

The background paper names about 60 rivers or river reaches, as well as 30 important protected areas.

Supporting information:

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A national conservation status assessment of Australia’s riverine ecosystems must ask three core questions:• What rivers (and river types) do we have?• What rivers do we wish to protect?• What rivers have we already protected?

Just under 1400 streams listed on Australia’s 1:250,000 map series carry the name “river”. Many of these are ephemeral or seasonal.

Why is it important?

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Australia has made international and national commitments to protect representative, rare and vulnerable ecosystems, and those which provide critical habitat for threatened species. To do this we must know what ecosystems we have, where they are, what their condition is, and what threatens their values.

We must know which important rivers are missing from our list of protected rivers.

We need a conservation status assessment of Australia’s rivers…

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In spite of these long-standing commitments, no national conservation status analysis has been conducted of Australia’s freshwater ecosystems. National conservation planning will not be effective if based on ad-hoc and piecemeal information. No national overview has been published describing the protected status of Australia’s rivers.

No freshwater ecosystem inventory exists at a national level.

However:

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Chadderton, WL, Brown, DJ, and Stephens, RT (2004) Identifying freshwater ecosystems of national importance for biodiversity – discussion document. Department of Conservation New Zealand, Wellington.

This study presently has no Australian equivalent.

An important New Zealand Study:

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A rigorous approach to the assessment of conservationstatus is not possible at a national scale:* on a river by river basis:

– identify specific values…– are values protected by the management regime?

The necessary information is not available at a national scale.

Ideally – are river values protected?

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A basic conservation status assessment is possible:• is the river’s catchment protected?• is the river’s flow regime protected?

- most of catchment within a reserve (IUCN protected area I-IV).- upper catchment undisturbed, no major dams between source and mouth.

- in examining these questions we use assumptions which are only partially correct, and we use arbitrary benchmarks on sliding scales.

A simpler approach:

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In many cases, control of alien species is difficult or impossible.

Many of the (otherwise natural) river systems of the north are badly affected.

This presentation does not address the issue.

Alien species:

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CAPAD protected area database

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Protection levels in drainage basinsANU Digital Elevation Model

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Within areas designed to protect terrestrial biodiversity (such as national parks) aquatic ecosystems may receive little protection from flow regulation and beyond-boundary water diversion.

Recreational fishing may even be promoted in Australian National Parks and other protected areas, together with the introduction of alien predators such as trout which can profoundly affect pristine freshwater ecosystems .

Rivers may not be well protected by parks:

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River disturbance index

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The condition assessment 2002 of the National Audit used two indices:• An environment index – based on:

– catchment disturbance; – hydrological disturbance; – habitat; and – nutrient and suspended sediment load.

• An aquatic biota index – based on macroinvertebrate monitoring.

National Land and Water Resources AuditAssessment of river condition:

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Dams and upper catchments

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South Alligator River

NT

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Alligator catchments from 200 km

Landsat 7 30m pixel

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The ‘unprotected’ corner from 11km.

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Rudall River WA from 240 km

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Basin stream name (95% area protected)

State Basin area km2

Protected area name

Rudall River WA 3391 Rudall River National Park

West Alligator River NT 1375 Kakadu National Park

Spring River Tas 1126 Southwest World Heritage Area

Davey River Tas 838 Southwest World Heritage Area

Copper Mine Creek WA 356 Fitzgerald River National Park

New River Tas 301 Southwest World Heritage Area

Rocky River SA 224 Kangaroo Island National Park

Weanerjungup Creek WA 151 Esperance Coast National Park

Saltwater Creek Qld 109 Lakefield National Park

Mawuwu Creek NT 107 Kakadu National Park

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Stream name (~natural flow protected)

State Water balance

Protected area name

South Alligator River NT 1641 Kakadu National Park

Franklin River Tas 1442 Southwest World Heritage Area

Coen River Qld 1247 Mungkan Kandju National Park

Davey River Tas 1056 Southwest World Heritage Area

Ray River Tas 713 Southwest World Heritage Area

Jane River Tas 655 Southwest World Heritage Area

West Alligator River NT 521 Kakadu National Park

Collingwood River Tas 446 Southwest World Heritage Area

Old River Tas 430 Southwest World Heritage Area

Giblin River Tas 421 Southwest World Heritage Area

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Largest partly protected catchments:Basin name Basin

area km2

Protected basin

Protected area name

South Alligator River

11244 91% Kadadu National Park

Prince Regent River

3217 78% Prince Regent River Nature Reserve, WA

Jardine River 2833 61% Jardine River National Park, Qld

Shannon River 930 89% Shannon River National Park, WA

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Ramsar (Convention on Wetlands 1971)

Directory of important wetlands in AustraliaRamsar definition of “wetlands”.

The Ramsar and DIWA databases:

Total listed sites

River catchment included

River segment included

River reach included

Ramsar 64 1 major

4 minor

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DIWA 850 7 25 143

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The Australian 1:250,000 scale map series shows about 3 million km of rivers and streams. Of these rivers and streams, only about 111,000 km ( ~ 4%) are dam-free, with 100% of their upstream catchments protected by reserves .

Most of these are a very small waterways.

Of Australia’s 166,018 km of named rivers, only 14,517 km lie within reserves, and of these just under 3000 km ( ~ 2%) are dam-free from headwaters to outlet.

Relatively few rivers are well protected:

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* the Southwest World Heritage Area (Tasmania) which protects several rivers including four of reasonable size, * Kakadu National Park (Northern Territory, two rivers), * Prince Regent River Biosphere Reserve, the Rudall River National Park, and the Shannon River National Park (WA), * the Jardine River National Park (Queensland), * the Nadgee Nature Reserve Wilderness Area (NSW), two rivers), and* the Ravine des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area, Kangaroo Island (South Australia, two rivers).

Australia’s largest protected rivers lie within eight major protected areas:

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A further 7 protected areas provide protection for substantial and important river reaches, while another 7 protected areas provide almost full protection for a number of important but relatively small rivers or creeks.

Refer to supporting documentation.

Other reserves protect important creeks or river reaches:

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A national conservation status assessment of Australia's inland aquatic ecosystems is an urgent priority. Such a study is likely to highlight serious deficiencies in the protection of riverine ecosystems.

Further investigation of the values and condition of protected rivers is urgently needed, along with studies of aquatic and riparian biodiversity hotspots, as well as headwater biodiversity.

Conclusion:

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Rudall River, WA

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Nadgee River, NSW

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Merrica River, NSW

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Prince Regent River, WA

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“The Values of Australia’s Protected Rivers”

A detailed look at the 33 rivers named in the supporting paper:

Catchment map, reserve map, air photo…

Identify each river’s special values

Has the area got a management plan?

What monitoring is available?

Are the river’s values being protected?

An interesting Masters or PhD project?

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Documents

list of protected rivers

important rivers

national commitments

national conservation

national scale

rivers catchment

national level

national overview