Key Biodiversity Area Easter Health-check 2017 Draft Summary Report. Prepared by Dr Golo Maurer KBA Program Manager

Transcription

1 Key Biodiversity Area Easter Health-check 2017 Draft Summary Report Prepared by Dr Golo Maurer Program Manager

2 This has been a big year for Australia s most important places for wildlife. Thank You, Guardians for making it happen! BirdLife Australia embraced the expansion of the Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas to include other species (a.k.a. bird food or nest material) and recognizes this by now referring to the IBAs we identified in 2009 as Key Biodiversity Areas (s). This change, far from slowing down Guardians, fanned our efforts with more Easter Health-checks (EHCs) received in 2017 than in all the years together since the first survey was done in 2013! This increased uptake was probably helped by the creation of the Easter Health-check Portal It displays all past Health-checks and increases speed and accuracy in data entry thanks to prefilled data from the previous year. It is amazing to see the depth of knowledge and dedication that the Guardians bring to their role and the diversity and sheer amount of conservation action in s. Last year I pointed out how Health-checks help BirdLife Australia focus our conservation efforts. In 2017 we declared 19 s in Danger based on Guardian reports and other data and have chosen five to campaign on intensively. They stand for bigger issues that those that your may be affected by and you will likely hear a lot more about them. The five s in Danger and their main issues are: Christmas Island Mining and invasive species Moreton Bay Development Macquarie Marshes Environmental Water Northern Swan Coastal Plain - Development Bruny Island - Logging One thing uniting all these s in Danger is the failure of the EPBC Act which is supposed to protect the species in these s. In 2018 BirdLife Australia will join an Alliance of Conservation groups to ensure that the once in 20 years review of the EPBC act produces laws that work. Finally, over 3,000 Shared Sites for standardised Bird surveys in s have been identified and will soon be displayed on These sites offer great opportunities for Guardians to promote monitoring and conservation. Before we dive into the descriptive statistics for the 2017 EHC I want to highlight the most shareable findings: - In 2017 Health-checks were done for 65 (21%) of Australia s s survey, up from 31 in Recreational activities are the most common threat to birds and biodiversity in the s sampled. - Water Management is the threat most frequently reported as putting the in Danger of losing one or more of its trigger species. - At least 1672 volunteers donate 21,000 hrs to monitoring and conservation of s working with 57 community groups and 21 BirdLife branches and affiliates. Whitsun-tidings 1, July

3 Baseline Statistics Table 1 Basic data for Easter Health-checks (EHC) for 2017 compared to previous EHCs # 2017 % 2017 # 2016 % 2016 AVG since 2013 # of s EHC Australia EHC for complete EHC NSW and ACT EHC NT EHC QLD EHC SA EHC Tas EHC Vic EHC WA EHC Commonwealth Total Guardians Branches and affiliates Avg hrs to complete Mode hrs to complete 1 2 Table 2: Monitoring effort 2017 compared to previous EHCs s with # 2017 # 2016 % 2017 (65 EHCs) % pre 2017 (43 EHCs) Any BA survey Atlas Shorebirds Beach nesters Woodland birds Orange-bellied Parrot Bittern Other BA surveys Other Bird surveys Other wildlife surveys Whitsun-tidings 1, July

4 Table 3: Volunteer contributions to monitoring 2017 compared to previous EHCs. NB. some early EHCs did not enquire about surveys for other taxa Since 2013 Monitoring People People/ hrs Hrs/ People People/ hrs Hrs/ People hrs BirdLife Australia , birds other , other wildlife Conservation BirdLife Australia , Others , Total Community Action 1, , Table 4 Birdata surveys in s 1st of April to 31st of March # of standardised surveys 5,196 4,329 Total duration (hrs) 6,747 5,068 # of observers # of locations 2,402 1,926 # of s The State of Australia s s The state of the s was assessed for Area and Quality looking at the habitat of >121 species, i.e. > 40% of all trigger species used to identify s in Australia or c. 15% of all species regularly occurring in Australia. These assessments were overwhelmingly based on Field visits and surveys or even Scientific Studies. Table 5 summarises the basic information. Figure 1 illustrates that 60% of s were considered to be in a moderate or good state. Table 5 Basic information on state assessments for 2017 compared to previous EHCs. State assessment # of trigger species assessed >121 >75 # of s assessed # of assessments made % assessments using visits or research Whitsun-tidings 1, July

5 Figure 1: This figure shows for how many of the 65 s assessed in the 2017 EHC the Habitat Area (black bars) and Quality (white bars) was rated as Very Poor, Poor, Moderate or Good respectively. Where the habitat was rated differently for different trigger species in the same the lowest value was applied. The grey bars indicate the State of the calculated as (Area rating + Quality rating)/2. Bars therefore either align with the full rating or in between when Area and Quality ratings differed. The pressures suffered by s Each of the 30 pressures assessed as part of the EHC were recorded in at least one and on average 9.4 pressures were reported. Each pressure was rated for Timing, Severity and Scope, with a value from 0 (negligible) to 3 (intense) resulting in sum totals from 0 to 9. The ten most common threats and their reporting frequency are shown in Figure 2. Threats most frequently rated as 8 or 9 are shown in Table 6. Of the 65 s 1/3 have at least one pressure rated so high (8 or 9) as to qualify the for in Danger status (Table 7). Figure 2: The ten most frequently reported pressures for s with the figure showing the percent of 65 s they have been reported for. Whitsun-tidings 1, July

6 Table 6. Frequency at which pressures rated at either 8 or 9 for 65 s assessed in the 2017 EHCs. This rating qualifies the to be declared as a in Danger of losing the biodiversity values it has been declared for. Pressure type Number of s with pressure reported as > 7 Dams and water management 7 Invasive animals 5 Recreational activities 4 Invasive plants 3 Fire and fire suppression 3 Building development 2 Drought 2 Floods 2 Habitat shifting 2 Problem native species 2 Domestic pollution 1 Forestry 1 Industrial pollution 1 Oil and gas 1 Table 7. For each the maximum pressure rating reported for any pressure rating was calculated as the sum of Timing, Severity and Scope, each rated from 0 (negligible) to 3 intense. Accordingly, the maximum rating can vary between 0 and 9. This table lists the total number of s which reached each maximum threat rating respectively. No s had ratings of 0, 1 or 2. Pressure ratings qualifying for in Danger rating are bold. Max pressure rating Count of s Whitsun-tidings 1, July

7 Conservation actions In light of the pervasive occurrence of threats it is good news that conservation actions were reported for 60 out of the 65 s with considerable government actions taken in about half the s and community actions taken in 86% of s (Table 8) with BirdLife Australia doing conservation work in almost half the s assessed in the 2017 EHC (Table 9). In addition, 57 community groups were involved in conservation. Table 8: Summary of conservation actions taken in s according to the 2017 Easter Health-check and presented as percentages of s that benefit from this action, multiple actions can be taken in one so percentages add up to > 100%. Conservation action Percent of s Habitat management plan 55.4 Government 53.8 BirdLife Australia 47.7 Indigenous groups 26.2 Private landholders 35.4 Community groups 53.8 Any community conservation 86.2 Govt or community conservation 92.3 All Habitat conservation 53.8 All Species conservation 29.2 All Education 69.2 All Advocacy 63.1 Table 9: Summary of conservation actions taken in s by BirdLife Australia branches, affiliates, projects or staff according to the 2017 Easter Health-check and presented as percentages of s that benefit from this action, multiple actions can be taken in one so percentages add up to > 100%. Birdlife Australia conservation Percent of s Any 47.7 Habitat 7.7 Species 13.8 Education 33.8 Advocacy 30.8 Other 18.5 Whitsun-tidings 1, July