Mangroves and tidal saltmarshes are amongst the most endangered marine wetland habitats worldwide. ‘MangroveWatch’ is a new program that has been established to address the urgent need to preserve and protect threatened tidal wetland ecosystems as well as addressing both scientific and environmental management needs. You can join an existing MangroveWatch program or register your interest in establishing a MangroveWatch node in your area.
National Threatened Species Day (NTSD) is held on 7 September each year – commemorating the death of the last Tasmanian tiger at Hobart Zoo in 1936.
The Cumberland Plain in western Sydney is Australia ‘s fastest growing and most populous region. Many of its unique natural attributes need special effort to maintain their values and ensure their protection. Just 13% of western Sydney ‘s native vegetation remains in highly fragmented patches of varying size and condition. The Cumberland Plain Recovery Plan has been designed to provide for the long-term survival and protection of the threatened biodiversity of the Cumberland Plain as the area develops. It constitutes the formal New South Wales recovery plan for 20 threatened species, populations and ecological communities that reside there.
The Cumberland Plain Shale Woodlands and Shale-Gravel Transition Forest booklet is designed to assist land managers, owners and occupiers as well as environmental assessment officers and consultants to identify, assess and manage the Cumberland Plain Shale Woodlands and Shale-Gravel Transition Forest of the Sydney region. This is a threatened ecological community listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
The call for abstracts and workshop expressions of interest for the Australian Network for Plant Conservation (ANPC) 8th National Conference has been extended to 15 August 2010. With the theme “Planning conservation to achieving restoration”, the Australian Network for Plant Conservation (ANPC) 8th National Conference (Perth 28 Sep – 1 Oct 2010) is a conference for everyone involved in conserving Australia’s unique flora and native vegetation. To find out more visit the conference webpage.
In any ecological survey, there is a chance that a species occupying a site will not be detected during a survey of that site. Georgia Garrard’s research has investigated detectability issues in the Western (Basalt) Plains grassland community on the northern and western fringes of Melbourne in close proximity to Melbourne’s urban growth boundary, where there is continual pressure for development. Read the rest of this entry »
The Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges region is one of Australia’s 15 National Biodiversity Hotspots (along with Kangaroo Island). It contains nationally significant vegetation communities and over 90 fauna species and nearly 300 flora species, many listed as threatened at a State or National level and some species or sub-species that are endemic to the region. The region is also home to over one million people residing in both urban and rural areas. The new report ‘Informing Biodiversity Conservation for the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Region South Australia’ sets conservation targets and actions at a variety of biological and spatial scales, based on a series of analyses using the best available data. To download the report and associated maps and fact sheets visit Informing Biodiversity Conservation for the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Region South Australia.
Decision Point is the monthly magazine of the Applied Environmental Decision Analysis research hub (AEDA) and presents articles, views and ideas on environmental decision making, biodiversity, conservation planning and monitoring. The July 2010 issue of Decision Point is now available and it promises to provoke a bit of discussion on our National Reserve System. Should we trade in the bits that aren’t performing that well? Does it adequately protect our wilderness? Read the rest of this entry »