SUBMISSION ON DRAFT NATIONAL WILDLIFE CORRIDOR PLAN
by
WESTERN CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT
AUTHORITY
1) General Comments on Draft
The Western Catchment Management Authority (Western CMA) offers the following general
comments of the Draft National Wildlife Corridor Plan (DNWCP):

A focus of the document is the issue of fragmentation of habitat and re-establishment of
connectivity to assist the movement of species especially under a climate change
scenario, ostensibly through linking protected areas primarily through native vegetation
management. However, habitat fragmentation is not a significant issue across the
Western Catchment as approximately 95% of the area consists of intact native
vegetation. Likewise, about 80% of mainland Australia is rangeland and is not suffering
habitat fragmentation. The draft document recognises this to some degree on page 19
‘Intact and Natural Landscapes’, but we emphasise that these intact landscapes
comprise the major reservoir of biodiversity at a national scale. Within the rangelands,
the presence of introduced predators is a far greater influence on wildlife survival
compared with the availability of habitat and vegetation condition. The draft Plan
provides no clear direction to address this key issue.

Again on page 19 of draft under ‘Intact and Natural Landscapes’ we noted that there is
no mention of unmanaged goats in reference to feral animals. We consider this a
significant omission given the national scale of the feral goat issue. Western CMA
recognises that unmanaged goats are the major impact on the management of natural
resources in the Western Catchment and is in the process of developing a strategy to
direct future responses to this issue. To inform the strategy, we have commissioned
reviews of the ecology, legal status, economics and harvest industry implications of feral
goats in the Western Rangelands as well as a 20 year population trend analysis. This
information in addition to a forthcoming Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information
System report demonstrate a burgeoning goat problem across NSW rangelands.
Western CMA has invested approximately $10 million into feral goat management over
the past six years through groundcover projects using Total Grazing Pressure (TGP)
fencing and trapping facilities. However the scale of this investment has yet to result in
landscape-scale improvement in groundcover or reduced goat numbers. The strategy
will promote a more strategic, collaborative approach to managing the impact of goats
more broadly at the landscape scale.

On page 21, Figure 5 shows a large amount of red area in the Western Catchment as
being held under Private Conservation agreements. Western CMA records do not reflect
this level of conservation agreements.

On page 45, Map 2 shows a large amount of medium fragmentation throughout the
Western Catchment area. Higher levels of fragmentation is more confined to Darling
Riverine Plains, Cobar Peneplain and Riverine biogregions were the Channel Country,
Mulga Lands, Broken Hill Complex and Murray-Darling Depression bioregions should
show low fragmentation due to being more intact landscapes.
A key corridor for aquatic species within the Western Catchment is the Barwon-Darling River
system. The viability of this national-scale corridor is highly vulnerable to upper catchment water
extraction and connectivity is compromised by numerous barriers to fish passage. Further
investment in this river system (such as through the Native Fish Strategy) is essential to achieve
the objectives of this draft Plan.
Office – 142 Brisbane Street, Dubbo – PO Box 1048, DUBBO NSW 2830
Principal Office - 62 Marshall Street, Cobar - PO Box 307 COBAR NSW 2835
Telephone: 02 6841 2740 - Facsimile: 02 6841 2799 - Website: www.western.cma.nsw.gov.au
2
2) National Wildlife Corridor Proposal for Appendix B: Western Rangelands of NSW
Western CMA willprovide the following information for consideration for the Western
Rangelands of NSW to be considered as a potential National Wildlife Corridor and to be added
to Appendix B of the draft.
Western Rangelands
2
The Western CMA is the largest in NSW, covering 230,000 km or 29 per cent of the state
including 20% of the Murray Darling Basin and has a population of 18,000. The Western
Catchment has primarily been used for grazing sheep on native pastures and is characterised
by large properties and marginal climatic conditions. Environmental issues in the region include
soil erosion, encroachment of Invasive Native Scrub and the decline of pasture and
groundcover conditions, largely driven by high total grazing pressure resulting from unmanaged
goats. Approximately 5% of the Far West and Central West Slopes Regions are protected within
the Public reserve system.
Landscape and Biodiversity
The Western Rangelands of NSW contain vast tracts of relatively unmodified ecosystems, a
wide diversity of native species and a large number of rare and endangered species
(approximately 130 species of plant and animal species are listed as threatened). There are
both production and biodiversity values that are dependent on the health of these rangelands. It
is one of the most diverse rangelands areas in Australia. The Western Rangelands encompass
a series of river systems including Barwon/Darling Culgoa, Paroo, Warrego, Narran, Bokhara,
Birrie, Bulloo Overflow and part of the Bogan Rivers. The native vegetation includes open
woodlands, chenopod shrub lands and native pastures.
Whilst the Western Rangelands in NSW are largely intact in terms of native vegetation
structure, relative to the extensively cleared temperate areas of the State, there has been a
significant and continued decline in rangeland condition, landscape function and hence,
biodiversity. The level of decline varies between bioregions, but accurately determining trends is
difficult to separate due to climatic and management influence on rangeland condition. Too add,
Western CMA has been working with landholders in the catchment on improving conservation
on private lands complementing the reserve system through its on ground works including
stewardship programs, river rehabilitation, native vegetation management, salinity programs,
community education and support.
Conservation Areas
Approximately 5% of the Western Rangelands in NSW are under conservation reserves and
include Paroo/Darling, Lake Mungo (world heritage listed), Gundabooka, Culgoa, Mutawinji
National Parks and Yathong, Ledknapper, Kinchega, Nocoleche and Narran Lake nature
reserves. The establishment of the reserve system is based on Comprehensive, Adequate and
Representative (CAR) being three measures of how well the system samples and offers longterm protection for the range of biodiversity in a region. In the very high priority bioregions are
the Darling Riverine Plain, Cobar Peneplain and Broken Hill Complex. The Mulga Lands
bioregion is classified as high priority. Under the CAR system the target for extant ecosystems
within these bioregions is 80% and currently percentages are approximately 50% and below.
3
The Darling Riverine Plains is the bioregion of most concern, having the lowest level of
reservation and possibly the highest level of development pressure.
Past and Current Pressures
Because of a lack of reliable rainfall required for cropping, and the open structure of arid and
semi-arid woodland communities, there has not been widespread clearing of the vegetation in
the Western Catchment. However, a small number of plant communities (including myall
woodlands, box woodlands and grasslands on black soil plains) along the eastern edge of the
Catchment have been reduced in extent due to clearing. Much of the clearing has occurred in
the highly fertile Darling Riverine Plains bioregion. However some clearing has also occurred in
the Cobar Peneplain and other bioregions. This is the area where cropping is practiced on the
margin of the wheat belt, so these plant communities are likely to be less depleted in the
Western Catchment than they are further east or south.
More pervasive than clearing is the decline in palatable flora across the Catchment due to longterm high total grazing pressure. This has caused serious modifications of some plant
communities (including box woodlands, grasslands, shrublands and areas of mulga), lack of
regeneration of some perennial species (including rosewood), degradation of the understorey,
significant depletion and species loss and ultimately structural decline leading to loss of viable
habitat. Unmanaged goat populations are a significant component of total grazing pressure.
Recent data indicates that goat populations have doubled in the past decade to three million
head. Total grazing pressure management projects funded by Western CMA have
demonstrated a dramatic improvement in vegetation condition can be achieved within relatively
short timeframes.
Activities
Currently two programs with implicit biodiversity conservation objectives operate in the Western
Catchment, the landscape-scale Enterprise Based Conservation Program (EBC) and the site
based High Conservation Value (HCV) program. The primary difference in approach is that for
the EBC program is to develop conservation as commercially viable and alternative land-use in
the Western Catchment through a long term return to the landholder. The HCV program focuses
on the protection of high conservation value areas being more discrete and likely to be smaller
in size than EBC sites. These two programs are the basis for achievement of Western
Catchment biodiversity targets. In particular, the EBC program has generated a high level of
landholder interest.
EBC commenced as a conservation land use program in the Western Catchment in 2003 as
part of the WEST 2000 Plus structural adjustment program to run for a period of 5 years and
was extended for a further 4 years. The Western CMA EBC program continues today and is
similar to WEST 2000 Plus program however with three basic changes to the project structure
including funding period for 15 years and development of management agreements through
statutory Property Vegetation Plans (PVP). The third change was that the area must be
destocked completely were as the WEST 2000 Plus program allowed for destocking, but also
incorporated grazing opportunities under Western CMA groundcover program.
The relatively intact landscapes in the Western Catchment and the low level of reservation,
presents an opportunity for bioregional planning. For this planning to be effective it must occur
across the landscape and include all tenures to adequately reflect the scale and interconnection
of ecosystem function and processes. An integral part of this planning is the implementation of
the Western CMA EBC and HCV program. These programs can be targeted to complement and
4
enhance the existing reserve system and create new nodes in the landscape. These nodes
should target ecosystems unrepresented or poorly reserved in the public reserves, or contain
other high value habitats, particularly freshwater ecosystems and or areas of refuge.
However future funding of the EBC program is not secure. The Western CMA has developed a
proposal to set up a Rangelands Trust fund for EBC program and the broad scope of the
proposal is that landholders sell grazing rights in exchange for conservation trust units from a
Rangeland Trust. The Trust runs a commercial investment, generating market returns. This
business case is still a proposal and differs from stewardship schemes in that it makes
conservation an enterprise alongside agri-business. This business case and background report
are availble at http://www.western.cma.nsw.gov.au/pages/Developconservationindustry.html.
Governance and Community participants
The NSW Biodiversity Strategy 2007 proposed the development of regional conservation
initiatives as response to climate change and the continuing effects of past habitat loss and
what the significant ongoing threats this poses to biodiversity in NSW. These initiatives will link
existing efforts by agencies, CMA’s, NGO’s, volunteer community groups, indigenous groups,
private individuals and others so that they contribute to priorities for connectivity within and
between regions. Also establish large scale collaborative programs, provide guidance to
agencies, industry, CMA’s and others on how to consider large-scale ecological processes and
threats in similar landscapes.
The Western Rangelands was one of two areas considered as a pilot for the first regional
conservation initiative being area of high conservation priority at the State scale and proposal
for the Western area is attached.
Stephen Wolter
Catchment Officer (Biodiversity)
Western Catchment Management Authority