paul peake & joan phillips, victorian environmental assessment council (veac)
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Taking environmental water requirements and climate change into account in the
designation and management of protected areas for floodplain ecosystems
Paul Peake & Joan Phillips, Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC)
What is VEAC?• Victorian Environmental Assessment Council
• Independent, 5-member Council advising the Victorian government on public land use
• Nearly all of Victoria’s marine and terrestrial protected areas have resulted from recommendations of VEAC and its predecessors (back to 1970)
• ... but little consideration of freshwater protected areas independently of terrestrial areas
• Work is largely done in Investigations covering particular regions and under Terms of Reference provided by the government
River Red Gum Forests Investigation
• April 2005 to July 2008
• 3 reports (each preceded by public consultation):
– Discussion Paper– Draft Proposals Paper– Final Report
• 273 recommendations for public land use – general and location-specific; government is currently considering these recommendations and is yet to respond
River Red Gum Forests Investigation Area
Riverine Wetlands
River Red Gum Forests Investigation Area
Wetland Stress
Barmah-Millewa Forest Flooding 2005
VEAC Draft Proposals
• More Water !!
Issues with ‘More Water’
• Why? To protect what? How do you know it’s enough / not too much? (“it’s a lot of water”)
• What about climate change?
• If we can’t water everything, what would be the best trade-offs to make?
New Approach
• Document and map natural values of the floodplain and their water requirements – i.e., frequency and duration of flooding
• Provides flexibility to maximise biodiversity outcomes with any volume of water (and any climate change scenario)
Values
• Included:– Vegetation types (EVCs), threatened terrestrial
vertebrate taxa
• Not included:– Threatened aquatic and invertebrate taxa; regionally
threatened taxa– Recovery of threatened taxa– Species richness– Colony sites for non-threatened taxa– Kerang wetlands, interstate ...
Flood-dependent Threatened Species Sites
Compilation of Flood-dependent Natural Values
Compilation of Values near Robinvale
Coverage of Natural Values near Robinvale
Coverage of EVCs near Robinvale
Future Work
• Values and areas not included
• Overbank flows and ecological connectivity
• Framework for comparing values
• Review conservation status assessments
• Refine estimates of water requirements
• Develop, communicate, implement, monitor and refine floodplain watering strategies – get on with it!
More Information and Full Report
www.veac.vic.gov.au
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