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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
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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
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 ...
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