Draft National Roadmap for protecting and conserving 30% of Australia’s land by 2030

Please note that the following comments are submitted by Australian members of the CALLANZ (Connectivity and Large Landscape Conservations in Australia and New Zealand) Network, a collaborative enterprie involving multiple connectivity and large landscape conservation organisations:
- Gondwana Link
- Great Eastern Ranges Initiative
- International Fund for Animal Welfare
- Northeast Bioregional Network
- Victorian Biolinks Alliance

The Department is to be commended on seeking to develop a framework document outlining how state and national governments might address Australia’s commitment to meeting the global ’30 by 30’ aspiration target under Target 3 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The National Roadmap document provides an opportunity to outline an innovative and impactful approach to addressing the continued loss of biodiversity.

Despite this the National Roadmap largely describes a ‘business as usual’ approach. Relying heavily on an expansion of the National Reserve System as the basis for meeting 30x30, there is no consideration of the suitability of the National Reserve System in an era of rapidly increasing climate change without consideration of ecological function or resilience. We know, for example, that significant shifts in weather patterns will likely shift the significance of remnant ecosystems and managed landscapes. In short, the reserve network of today may not be fit for purpose tomorrow.

In addition to giving greater consideration to climate impacts, the National Roadmap would benefit from a number of additional enhancements.

a) Consideration of the suitability of a traditional approach to selection of new protected areas (the map on page 25 for example, emphasises the use of CAR principles as the basis for a protected area strategy without consideration of where we might consolidate existing achievements).

b) Critical analysis of why biodiversity loss continues to accelerate despite the near exponential growth in the protected area estate over the last 50 years.

c) A more detailed explanation of what Other Effective Conservation Mechanisms/Conservation Areas (OECM/CAs) actually look like in the Australian context.

d) Express commitment to ensuring that national and state governments work together to ensure sufficient funding is made available to ensure active management. Recent analysis, for example, indicates that despite an increase in extent the overall condition of protected areas continues to decline.

The National Roadmap makes a number of references to connectivity as a critical characteristic of our national 30x30 aspiration. However there is little consideration of how connectivity will be enhanced. The NRS clearly comprises the centre-piece of the National Roadmap, but misses the opportunity to mobilise OECM/CAs in the form of definable ecological corridors that (1) contribute to the area of land under protection, (2) ensure its functional connectiveness, and (3) draws on the capacity of all sectors of society to ensure appropriate management.

This potential is to some extent undermined by the definition of OECM/CAs lacking the strength and security to meaningfully contribute to the National Roadmap’s 30x30 target. At the same time, OECM/CAs could potentially provide a means of increasing protection and management of vast areas of land in parts of the country for which there is currently no other means of protection. Already there are scores of examples of collaborative community efforts that link private land conservation commitments across districts to create what effectively comprises a connectivity focussed ‘Conservation Area’ in need of clearer definition.

OECM/CAs also have a role to play in addressing limitations in state planning regulations that continue to erode the extent and connectedness of land that could contribute meaningfully to the 30x30 target. Tasmanian forests currently earmarked for future logging, for example, provide some of the best opportunities to rapidly increase land area under protection.

Lack of consideration of the role of the wider community in contributing to conservation targets via Landcare and connectivity conservation initiatives such as Gondwana Link, Victorian Biolinks Alliance, Northeast Bioregional Network and Great Eastern Ranges. Connectivity conservation initiatives feature significantly around the world. As noted above, it is essential that with increased coverage of land under conservation there will be a commensurate need for the active presence and management of threats to biodiversity. Outside public protected areas this is best achieved by local communities that are adequately resourced to ensure continued stewardship.

Australia was previously a world leader in the development of the National Wildlife Corridors Plan (Commonwealth of Australia, 2012) – a Plan that considered the critical role of protected areas and IPAs as foundational ‘building blocks’ which are complemented by landscape scale restoration and community capacity building and application of best available science.

The National Roadmap signals the intention to allocate significant resourcing to ensure appropriate management of IPAs; commensurate levels of funding should be committed also to Landcare and connectivity conservation initiatives that would ensure the success of the wider framework.

It is recognised that the draft document as presented for consultation comprises a high level outline, with further detail likely under development at more operational scales. The National Roadmap in the first instance provides a useful summation of the various commitments and targets to which our nation is committed. It also documents commendable progress in expansion of the National Reserve System on land and sea in recent decades and the state and national programs and initiatives that can assist the task at hand.