Estuary environmental flows assessment methodology for Victoria

This report sets out a method to determine the environmental water requirements of estuaries in Victoria. The estuary environmental flows assessment method (EEFAM) is a standard methodology which can be applied consistently across Victorian estuaries.
The primary objective of EEFAM is to define a flow regime to maintain or enhance the ecological health of an estuary. The method is used to inform Victorian water resource planning processes.
The output of EEFAM is a recommended flow regime for estuaries. This recommendation is developed from the known dependence of the estuary’s flora, fauna, biogeochemical and geomorphological features on the flow regime. EEFAM is an evidence-based methodology. This bottom-up or ‘building block’ approach conforms to the asset-based approach of the Victorian River Health Strategy and regional river health strategies.
EEFAM is based on and expands on FLOWS, the Victorian method for determining environmental water requirements in rivers. The list of tasks has been modified and re-ordered in EEFAM to reflect environmental and management issues specific to estuaries. EEFAM and FLOWS can be applied
simultaneously to a river and its estuary as part of a whole-of-system approach to environmental flow requirements. Like the FLOWS method, EEFAM is modular, and additional components can be readily incorporated.

The IUCN red list of ecosystems: motivations, challenges, and applications

In response to growing demand for ecosystem-level risk assessment in biodiversity conservation, and rapid proliferation of locally tailored protocols, the IUCN recently endorsed new Red List criteria as a global standard for ecosystem risk assessment. Four qualities were sought in the design of the IUCN criteria: generality; precision; realism; and simplicity. Drawing from extensive global consultation, we explore trade-offs among these qualities when dealing with key challenges, including ecosystem classification, measuring ecosystem dynamics, degradation and collapse, and setting decision thresholds to delimit ordinal categories of threat. Experience from countries with national lists of threatened ecosystems demonstrates well-balanced trade-offs in current and potential applications of Red Lists of Ecosystems in legislation, policy, environmental management and education. The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems should be judged by whether it achieves conservation ends and improves natural resource management, whether its limitations are outweighed by its benefits, and whether it performs better than alternative methods. Future development of the Red List of Ecosystems will benefit from the history of the Red List of Threatened Species which was trialed and adjusted iteratively over 50 years from rudimentary beginnings. We anticipate the Red List of Ecosystems will promote policy focus on conservation outcomes in situ across whole landscapes and seascapes.

The value of ethnoecological knowledge of the Minahasans: repositioning traditional biocultural knowledge in Indonesian environmental planning

Indonesian strategic and statutory environmental regimes have drawn directly from conventional Western models of environmental planning and natural resource management. These models are often at odds with, do not connect with, nor appreciate generational traditional biocultural knowledge and information from regionally-specific Indigenous communities in Indonesia. This knowledge, and the voice of the custodians of this knowledge, has been overlooked and circumvented in the name of broadscale nationalistic co-ordinated strategic planning. The problem is that nationalist planning, in a multicultural archipelago full of a diverse set of communities often with their own languages, dialects, cultural relationships to landscape, and mixed connectivity to different cohorts of colonial (European and Asian) and religious affiliations means that a deep understanding of environmental information at local and regional level is negated and denied legitimacy. This paper offers a platform to discuss this issue, the difficulty of nationalistic planning and its failings at the Minahasan regional level in Indonesia, and the wealth of cultural and environmental answers the Minahasan culture can bring to the table to better management its landscape sustainably and culturally. This paper’s purpose is to question conventional and generic environmental planning systems in Indonesia and charts an alternate culturally-attuned agenda that can offer to inform and better manage landscapes sustainably and culturally. The tipping points are deep questions about how to regionally manage landscapes sustainably and culturally in deference to a nationalistic agenda before the latter dooms the former producing a 'one-fits all' or generic Indonesian biogeographical landscape devoid of cultural nuances.

Limitations to the feasibility of using hypolimnetic releases to create refuges for riverine species in response to stream warming

Given predicted increases associated with human-induced climate change, stream temperatures are likely to approach upper tolerance limits of aquatic biota within the coming decades. Little information is available regarding thermal tolerance limits of lotic fauna or mechanisms allowing fauna to persist following high temperature events (e.g. use of thermal refuges). Cold-water refuges can facilitate survival of fish in the Northern Hemisphere, but little evidence of similar refuges exists elsewhere.Planned releases of hypolimnetic, or a mixture of top and bottom, waters from reservoirs have recently been touted as a novel method to potentially ameliorate extreme temperature events. However, the feasibility of this technique has not been fully discussed in the published literature. Therefore, we present a literature review, an analysis of thermal data for some large dams in southern Australia in relation to known thermal tolerances of native fauna, and an assessment of current management practices regarding the technique. We show that hypolimnetic releases have variable impacts on water temperatures downstream of a dam, depending on size, off-take infrastructure and management practices but, even where there is an effect, knowledge gaps are too numerous for this technique to be currently feasible. Furthermore, hypolimnetic releases generally evoke negative connotations among natural resource managers, due to the occurrence of cold-water shock in some species. If knowledge gaps and limitations can be addressed, it is possible that the technique may be considered in future, so we present potential tools for future assessment, capacities and limitations and discuss potential scenarios where environmental managers might consider this technique.

Modelling the benefits of habitat restoration in socio-ecological systems

Decisions affecting the management of natural resources in agricultural landscapes are influenced by both social and ecological factors. Models that integrate these factors are likely to better predict the outcomes of natural resource management decisions compared to those that do not take these factors into account. We demonstrate how Bayesian Networks can be used to integrate ecological and social data and expert opinion to model the cost-effectiveness of revegetation activities for restoring biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. We demonstrate our approach with a case-study in grassy woodlands of south-eastern Australia. In our case-study, cost-effectiveness is defined as the improvement in native reptile and beetle species richness achieved per dollar spent on a restoration action. Socio-ecological models predict that weed control, the planting of trees and shrubs, the addition of litter and timber, and the addition of rocks are likely to be the most cost-effective actions for improving reptile and beetle species richness. The cost-effectiveness of restoration actions is lower in remnant and revegetated areas than in cleared areas because of the higher marginal benefits arising from acting in degraded habitats. This result is contingent on having favourable landowner attitudes. Under the best-case landowner demographic scenarios the greatest biodiversity benefits are seen when cleared areas are restored. We find that current restoration investment practices may not be increasing faunal species richness in agricultural landscapes in the most cost-effective way, and that new restoration actions may be necessary. Integrated socio-ecological models support transparent and cost-effective conservation investment decisions. Application of these models highlights the importance of collecting both social and ecological data when attempting to understand and manage socio-ecological systems.

Grassland conservation and the plains-wanderer: A small brown bird makes an effective local flagship

This study explored whether the plains-wanderer (Pedionomus torquatus), a species lacking the criteria outlined in the traditional flagship model, is a suitable local flagship for the Northern Plains Grasslands of Victoria in Australia. Questionnaires and telephone interviews were used to survey residents and natural resource management professionals and volunteers ('NRM participants') in communities living close to the Northern Plains Grasslands. Questionnaires were completed by 146 residents and 69 NRM participants, and 15 interviews were conducted. Results suggest that a significant proportion of the local community was aware of, and valued, the plains-wanderer, and that the species is currently functioning as an effective flagship for the region. Recommendations are provided for the future selection of flagship species in ecosystems where traditional flagships are not present.

Reforms required to the Australian tax system to improve biodiversity conservation on private land

Private land conservation forms an integral part of Australia’s natural resource management and biodiversity conservation efforts, and the past two decades have seen a significant growth in the establishment of in-perpetuity conservation covenants. Specifically, conservation covenants address key national goals such as building the National Reserve System and expanding the markets for ecosystem services. However, a number of financial barriers exist to achieving these goals, and the national tax review in the form of the Tax White Paper Task Force provides an opportunity to address these barriers. This article provides a number of specific recommendations which outline how these financial barriers for private land conservation might be addressed by the Federal Government.

Incorporating historical data into aquaculture planning

Marine historical research has made progress in bridging the gap between science and policy, but examples in which it has been effectively applied remain few. In particular, its application to aquaculture remains unexplored. Using actual examples of natural resource management in the state of South Australia, we illustrate how historical data of varying resolution can be incorporated into aquaculture planning. Historical fisheries records were reviewed to identify data on the now extinct native oyster Ostrea angasi fishery throughout the 1800 and early-1900s. Records of catch, number of boats fishing, and catch per unit effort (cpue) were used to test fishing rates and estimate the total quantity of oysters taken from select locations across periods of time. Catch quantities enabled calculation of the minimum number of oysters per hectare for two locations. These data were presented to government scientists, managers, and industry. As a result, interest in growing O. angasi increased and new areas for oyster aquaculture were included in regulatory zoning (spatial planning). Records of introductions of the non-native oyster Saccostrea glomerata, Sydney rock oysters, from 1866 through 1959, were also identified and used to evaluate the biosecurity risk of aquaculture for this species through semi-quantitative risk assessment. Although applications to culture S. glomerata in South Australia had previously been declined, the inclusion of historical data in risk assessment led to the conclusion that applications to culture this species would be accepted. The examples presented here have been effectively incorporated into management processes and represent an important opportunity for the aquaculture industry in South Australia to diversify. This demonstrates that historical data can be used to inform planning and support industry, government, and societies in addressing challenges associated with aquaculture, as well as natural resource management more broadly.

A checklist for ecological management of landscapes for conservation

The management of landscapes for biological conservation and ecologically sustainable natural resource use are crucial global issues. Research for over two decades has resulted in a large literature, yet there is little consensus on the applicability or even the existence of general principles or broad considerations that could guide landscape conservation. We assess six major themes in the ecology and conservation of landscapes. We identify 13 important issues that need to be considered in developing approaches to landscape conservation. They include recognizing the importance of landscape mosaics (including the integration of terrestrial and aquatic areas), recognizing interactions between vegetation cover and vegetation configuration, using an appropriate landscape conceptual model, maintaining the capacity to recover from disturbance and managing landscapes in an adaptive framework. These considerations are influenced by landscape context, species assemblages and management goals and do not translate directly into on-the-ground management guidelines but they should be recognized by researchers and resource managers when developing guidelines for specific cases. Two crucial overarching issues are: (i) a clearly articulated vision for landscape conservation and (ii) quantifiable objectives that offer unambiguous signposts for measuring progress.

Science into policy? Discourse, coastal management and knowledge

The world's coastal resources are under pressure, even more so under climate change with 90% of the world's population living near or along our coastal zone. Ecologically, this zone is also the most productive, and the mainstay of economic livelihoods on a global scale. Managing the coast effectively is crucial, but as an area it remains contested. Despite multiple efforts to manage the coast, it remains a contested space. This paper offers a reflection into the ways in which different discourses influence and impact on one specific dimension of coastal zone management-the transmission of science into the policy domain. Using historical and discourse analysis, we find that the science-policy interface is largely constructed within two knowledge discourses: (i) scientific knowledge and (ii) local knowledge. This arbitrary separation into a binary discursive landscape mitigates against science-policy integration in practice especially given each discourse in itself, encompasses multiple forms of knowledge. We argue that in order to better understand how to build scientific research outputs into policy, decision makers and researchers need to understand how knowledge works in practice, overcome this dichotomous construction of knowledge and specifically, re-construct or transition the notion of 'science as knowledge' into 'all knowledge types' into policy.