Only One Planet

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Only One Planet
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IdentifyingAustralias protected rivers

• Janet Stein
• Centre for Resource and Environmental
  StudiesAustralian National University
• Jon Nevill
• Only One Planet Australia

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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.

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Why is it important?

• A national conservation status assessment of
  Australias 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 Australias
  1250,000 map series carry the name river.
  Many of these are ephemeral or seasonal.

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We need a conservation status assessment of
Australias 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.
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However
In spite of these long-standing commitments, no
national conservation status analysis has been
conducted of Australias 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
Australias rivers. No freshwater ecosystem
inventory exists at a national level.
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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.
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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.

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A simpler approach

• A basic conservation status assessment is
  possible
• is the rivers catchment protected?
• is the rivers 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.

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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.
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CAPAD protected area database
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Protection levels in drainage basins ANU Digital
Elevation Model
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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
.
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River disturbance index
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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.

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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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The Ramsar and DIWA databases
Ramsar (Convention on Wetlands 1971) Directory of
important wetlands in Australia Ramsar definition
of wetlands.
Total listed sites River catchment included River segment included River reach included
Ramsar 64 1 major 4 minor 11 28
DIWA 850 7 25 143
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Relatively few rivers are well protected
The Australian 1250,000 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 Australias
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.
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Australias 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). 
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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.
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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.
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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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An interesting Masters or PhD project?
The Values of Australias Protected Rivers A
detailed look at the 33 rivers named in the
supporting paper Catchment map, reserve map,
air photo Identify each rivers special
values Has the area got a management plan? What
monitoring is available? Are the rivers values
being protected?