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

River Red Gum Forests Investigation Area

Riverine Wetlands

River Red Gum Forests Investigation Area

Wetland Stress

Barmah-Millewa Forest Flooding 2005

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 ...

Flood-dependent Threatened Species Sites

Compilation of Flood-dependent Natural Values

Compilation of Values near Robinvale

Coverage of Natural Values near Robinvale

Coverage of EVCs near Robinvale

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