20 April 2012
Director,
Conservation Incentives and Design Section
Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
Email:
wildlife.corridors@environment.gov.au
Dear Director,
Draft National Wildlife Corridors Plan; March 2012: Trust for Nature's Submissions
Trust for Nature, Victoria (TFN) is pleased to have the opportunity to comment on what we
would hope are the first stages of ground breaking large scale wildlife corridor planning for the
whole of Australia.
TFN also acknowledges the opportunity provided by the National Wildlife Corridors Plan
Advisory Group for roundtable discussions earlier in the year in Melbourne.
Background
TFN is a statutory entity formed in 1972 under the Victorian Conservation Trust Act charged with
promoting and assisting in the conservation of Victoria's wildlife, native flora and fauna. TFN is
also charged with protecting significant natural areas on private land in Victoria. As a result, TFN
has developed significant networks of landowners and private land protected areas. Today, the
range of activities that TFN assists with includes:
- Participation in conservation partnerships;
- Facilitation of community management networks;
- Conservation management advice and education;
- Brokering financial incentives for landholders;
-Environmental Offset negotiations and registrations;
– Registration of conservation agreements on title;
– Stewardship services working in partnership with landowners
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– Leveraging philanthropic investments for land purchases and conservation activities
TFN protected areas generally meet the standards required for inclusion under the International
Union for Nature Conservation’s (IUCN) guidelines for protected areas and the National Reserve
and accordingly provide an important means of increasing the National Reserve System. In the
context of national corridors this is important particularly in cleared landscapes where few
strategic long-term gains will be possible through changes in tenure of Crown land. In this way,
TFN together with like organisations across Australia provide an efficient means of securing part
of the large investments that will be needed to enliven the Draft Plan in a way that will not
require new national legislation.
Given that the Draft Plan proposed significant reliance upon private landowners to realise the
vision of National wildlife corridors, TFN wishes to highlight for the Australian Government's
attention the recent private land conservation planning it has been undertaking on a whole of
Victoria basis.
The scope of TFN's Victorian Statewide Conservation Plan is designed to specifically focus on
large landscape priority areas on private land. Our aim is to guide and assist with our on ground
conservation work with landowners and those of our key partner investors over the next 5 to 10
years. Specifically, TFN's statewide conservation planning is premised upon the same basis as
those articulated for the Draft Plan; namely to:
- establish a strategic, statewide approach to our conservation activities on private land,
focussing on protecting priority ecosystems and species;
- develop an integrated approach to biodiversity conservation across our ten
operational regions which coincide with Victoria's 10 CMA regions; and
- develop a strategic approach to nature conservation on private land that complements
the conservation measures being undertaken by partner agencies on public and private
land.
In developing TFN's statewide conservation plan it has been based upon the Victorian
Government's Department of Sustainability and Environment’s (DSE) asset-based approach to
conservation. It has also been informed by the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation
framework - an internationally standardised framework for conservation planning .
TFN's statewide conservation planning project has identified a number of focal landscapes
across Victoria that have the potential to be recognised nationally as wildlife corridors of
significance. These focal landscapes which contain > 10,000 hectares of high-value habitat occur
substantially on private land. In terms of the Draft Plan, these focal landscapes align closely with
the recognised wildlife corridors particularly in relation to Habitat 141, the natural extension of
the Great Eastern Ranges to the Grampians and the Murray River corridor highlighted in the
Draft Plan by the identification of the Edwards-Wakool Rivers region.
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Summary of Submissions
Against the above background, there are three (3) issues of importance TFN wishes to draw to
the Australian Government's attention in relation to the Draft National Wildlife Corridors Plan
(Draft Plan).
1. TFN welcomes the Draft Plan's identification of the existing Habitat 141 Corridor and its
community, non-government and public sector networks. TFN and its Habitat 141 alliance
partners would be pleased to enter into discussions with the Australian Government to help
deliver this groundbreaking initiative if resources can be made available. TFN has an ongoing
commitment to assist with facilitating this important corridor given significant areas within
Habitat 141 have been confirmed by our recent statewide conservation analysis and planning.
Similarly, while TFN endorses the identification of the Edward Wakool Rivers Region as a
potential corridor area of national significance (including the river networks on the Victorian
side of the border), our statewide conservation planning project leads us to encourage
consideration of the entire Murray Valley and associated river systems being identified as
national priority wildlife corridor areas.
In relation to the Great Eastern Ranges national corridor, TFN is disappointed that the Draft Plan
does not recognise the scientific merits of the potential to extend the GER project into Victoria
given (I) TFN's onground involvement in a Victorian Central biolinks project that could
potentially connect to the GER; (II) the results of our focal landscape priority area identification
confirming the importance of the GER area across private land in Victoria; and finally (III) TFN
already having entered into an affiliate's agreement with the GER alliance.
2. The Draft Plan could be strengthened by increased recognition of the potential for significant
regional corridors within Victoria given the following:
–Victoria represents the most highly cleared state in Australia with approximately half of
its former extent of native vegetation cleared for agriculture, mining and urban
development since European settlement. Across the 14 million hectares of private land
(two thirds of Victoria), 80% of the former extent of native vegetation has been
removed particularly grasslands, chenopod shrublands, grassy woodlands, riverine
woodlands and wetlands
– TFN's own statewide conservation planning identification of focal landscapes
indicating the potential for peri-urban corridors around the Port Phillip and Westernport
peri-urban frontages and a project linking the Strzelecki Ranges IBRA subregion with the
Gippsland Plains and Gippsland Lakes.
TFN would welcome the opportunity to provide further details to the Australian Government
about our focal landscape work in face-to-face discussions.
3. The Draft Plan proposed national wildlife corridor principle of: "Effective corridors connect
the landscape across a mosaic of land tenures and land uses without affecting property” should
be strengthened to recognise how significant Australian Government investments in corridors
can, in part, be secured over the long term to withstand shifts and changes in private land
ownership. That is, in TFN's view the principles need to explicitly include reference to the need
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for some core high quality private land protected areas being secured and supported by way of
conservation covenants to help maintain the quality of connecting habitats over the long term.
In conclusion, TFN would welcome the opportunity to be included in progressing priority
national wildlife corridor initiatives within Victoria. TFN believes its foundational work in
relation to statewide conservation planning for private land across the 10 catchments within
Victoria position us well to work with the Australian Government to realise the ambitions and
principles outlined in the Draft Plan.
Yours sincerely
Victoria Marles
Chief Executive Officer
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