A River Runs Through It

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Jade Eaton
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1 Sometimes A River Runs Through It Protected Areas and freshwater conservation: lessons from Australia Dr Stuart Blanch Freshwater Manager Skukuza, October 2006

2 Australia s natural water infrastructure assets 3 M km rivers & creeks 16 M ha nationally important wetlands 64 Ramsar Wetlands 1,560 estuaries??? ha floodplains But Australia has no national policy framework or targets for protecting high conservation value rivers, wetlands and estuaries

3 Land use zoning How do Protected Areas fit in the freshwater conservation jigsaw? Waterways Nationally important wetlands Marine Parks, Aquatic Reserves* National Water Initiative Shorebird Network Heritage Rivers* Native vegetation manageme National Reserve System Ramsar wetlands (on National Heritage List) Indigenous Protected Areas Estuary Pollution & water Threatened spp. & communities, threatening processes Management quality laws Natural Resource Management Program Wild / heritage river protection* Wetland protection Policies* Development assessment & control Fish habitat protection, fish passage, weir removal ustralian Heritage Rivers System*

4 Factories Key Wilderness Area National Park, Nature Res. Water supply catchment Conservation agreement Accredited Property Plan Vacant Crown Land Indigenous Protected Area Protected forestry area Wild / Heritage river Marine Protected Area Biosphere Reserve Land use zoning & wetland protection policies Ramsar wetland over public & private land Nationally important wetland Aquatic reserve Threatened ecological community Shorebird Network site Catchment planning & riparian zone repair Environmental flows Land clearing laws Dam Wetland Forest Catchment boundary Grazing Cropping Town

5 Decreasing Increasing Returns on investment in protection Number and area of aquatic ecosystems World Heritage Ramsar Wetlands Biosphere Reserve National Heritage Place* National Parks Indigenous Protected Area Australian Heritage River System* Leasehold land management Wetland protection policies Wilderness Area Trans-boundary watercourse agreement Wild / Heritage / Living River designation under State laws* Natural Resource Management Plans Scale of Conservation Significance International Australia State / Territory National Conservation Value 1 High High High Lead Coordination Role 2 Australian, State and Territory Governments State & Territory Governments Community education & awareness raising Water & Vegetation Management Plans Threatened species and ecological community listing Community education and public awareness Forestry reserves, codes of practice Marine Protected Areas (estuarine section) Aquatic reserves* Rate and tax rebates for farmers Power boat restrictions Regional Local Medium Low NRM Groups and Local Government Local government reserves Conservation and property agreements Riparian zone fencing and management Land use zoning Development assessment & control

6 Proposed Australian targets Protect all HCV aquatic ecosystems by 2010 International, Australian and State conservation significance Of the 3 M km of rivers & creeks, protect 15%* in Wild / Heritage / Living River laws (now 6.0% by length & 4.5% by area) Protected Areas (now 7.2%) Protect 80%* of nationally important wetlands in protected areas (now 55% of 16 M ha) Designate 100* Ramsar wetlands (now 65 of total 860 wetlands of national importance) * thru comprehensive & representative representation in aquatic bioregions

7 Legend Major river Boundary of tropical savannas Key stats 1 M km of rivers & creeks (100 licensed dams & weirs) 65% of Australia s freshwater (c. 78, 000 Gl, 50 Gl extracted) 91 catchments covering 2 M km 2 (< c. 2% cleared) Most diverse, rich & intact rivers in Australia (>200 spp fish) c. 5% in PAs, 25% Indigenous, 55% leasehold 1.9 M km 2 of tropical savannas (area of W + S Europe)

8 Protected Areas and Indigenous Land

9 Wild and Living Rivers in Northern Australia 59 catchments to date Western Australia Northern Territory Queensland

10 Victorian Heritage Rivers and Natural Catchment Areas Natural Catchments Heritage Rivers Public Land

11 Recommendations #1 Protected Areas for freshwater conservation should Explicitly apply comprehensiveness, adequacy & representativeness criteria to freshwater habitats Catchments, river reaches, wetlands, floodplains, GDEs, estuaries Seek to form a contiguous network along whole length of a river IUCN Categories I-VI In association with, and strengthen, non-pa freshwater conservation Protect whole free-flowing catchments & sub-catchments if possible Protect downstream wetlands & estuaries as leverage to drive IRBM along whole river, with other recognition if possible Ramsar wetlands, Shorebird sites

12 Recommendations #2 Develop aquatic ecosystem asset registers per basin IRBM to recognise & conserve PAs, such as CBD PoW Inland Waters Goal 1.2 EU Water Framework Directive linking to Natura 2000 sites (Art. 6) Australia s National Water Initiative, Living Murray Initiative s 6 Signif. Ecol Assets Assess conservation value (global, regional, national, aquatic bioregion) Develop FPA toolkit and decision support systems, aquatic bioregions Freshwater conservation targets wetland area & river length within PAs & designated free-flowing rivers Global free-flowing river conservation framework Develop global register of free-flowing rivers, explicit link to PAs via CBD PoW Inland Waters, Ramsar, Watercourses Convention? eg, US, Canada, Australia, EU Natura 2000 wild rivers, etc

13 Thank you Modified from image Andrew Rowland and Dean Thorburn. Used with permission

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