Only One Planet

1. Only One Planet Only One Planet IdentifyingAustralia’s protected rivers Janet Stein Centre for Resource and Environmental StudiesAustralian National University Jon Nevill Only One Planet Australia

2. Only One Planet Only One Planet Supporting information: • 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.

3. Only One Planet Only One Planet Why is it important? • 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.

4. Only One Planet Only One Planet We need a conservation status assessment of Australia’s rivers… 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.

5. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au However: 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.

6. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au An important New Zealand Study: 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.

7. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au Ideally – are river values protected? • 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.

8. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au A simpler approach: • 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.

9. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au Alien species: 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.

11. CAPAD protected area database

12. Protection levels in drainage basins ANU Digital Elevation Model

13. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au Rivers may not be well protected by parks: 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 .

14. River disturbance index

15. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au National Land and Water Resources Audit Assessment of river condition: • 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.

18. Dams and upper catchments

19. South Alligator River NT

20. Alligator catchments from 200 km Landsat 7 30m pixel

21. The ‘unprotected’ corner from 11km.

23. Rudall River WA from 240 km

24. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au

25. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au

26. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au Largest partly protected catchments:

27. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au The Ramsar and DIWA databases: Ramsar (Convention on Wetlands 1971) Directory of important wetlands in Australia Ramsar definition of “wetlands”.

28. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au Relatively few rivers are well protected: 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.

29. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au Australia’s largest protected rivers lie within eight major protected areas: * 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). 

30. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au Other reserves protect important creeks or river reaches: 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.

31. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au Conclusion: 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.

32. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au Rudall River, WA

33. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au Nadgee River, NSW

34. Only One Planet Merrica River, NSW

35. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au Prince Regent River, WA

37. Only One Planet www.onlyoneplanet.com.au An interesting Masters or PhD project? “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?