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Nature conservation in Australia

Nature conservation in Australia: applications

Australia's native vegetation cover is diverse, rich in species and complexity and has a very high degree of endemism. Native vegetation contributes to the natural values, resources and processes of biodiversity, soil and water resources, hydrology, land productivity, sustainable land use, and climate change. It also contributes to natural and cultural heritage, and Indigenous people's interests.

Nature conservation means much more than just protecting wildlife and its habitat in nature reserves. Conservation of native species and ecosystems, and the processes they support the flows and quality of rivers, wetlands and groundwater, and soil structure and landscapes are all crucial to the sustainability of primary industries. The management and conservation of native vegetation is the responsibility of all Australians and may be achieved through a variety of mechanisms.

The shift towards more sustainable land use systems is likely to include greater use of native Australian species than occurs in conventional agriculture today. Farming systems may in the future have portions of the landscape occupied by native perennials, some forming the basis of grazing systems, and others generating a range of products including carbon sequestration, timber, fuelwood, craftwood and pulp, cut flowers, essential oils, herbs, solvents, and pharmaceuticals. Community revegetation and regeneration activities could be underpinned and complemented by a thriving native vegetation industry and associated infrastructure for native vegetation management.

Managing for conservation values

Managing to conserve or enhance the conservation benefits of native vegetation can be achieved through a number of mechanisms, from formal reservation to incentives for conserving the values of individual remnants on private land.

Incentives schemes can be derived from and delivered at a range of scales (e.g. nationally through the taxation system and major targeted grants for national priorities; subnationally through revolving funds, industry codes of practice, accreditation systems and regulatory approaches; and regionally through regional grants, stewardship payments, planning, zoning and rating systems).

The general principles informing the design and delivery of incentives need to incorporate principles that include:

• natural resource management and resource allocation decisions being made at the lowest practicable level;
• systems that connect people as directly as possible with the consequences of their actions; and
• local ownership of problems and solutions are most likely to be genuine when revenue raising and resource allocation operate at the same level.

Examples of nature conservation mechanisms

Transition incentives

Transition incentives are one-off payments to assist landholders to meet new requirements imposed through legislative and land use planning processes. Policy or legislative change is accompanied by incentives that assist landholders in meeting new vegetation management obligations. The emphasis is on equity so as to retain landholder support and motivation for the transition to a new management standard.

An example of a transition incentive is in South Australia where payment for protecting vegetation under heritage agreements was made available following refusal of a clearance application under the native vegetation clearing legislation between 1985 and 1991.

The New South Wales Department of Land and Water Conservation recently introduced property agreements that assist landholders in managing native vegetation following the introduction of broadscale clearing controls in this State.

Voluntary management agreements

Voluntary management agreements are a contract or binding agreement between a landholder and third party regarding the use and management of their land to assist in sustaining the conservation values in the long term. An integral part of these agreements is that they promote integrated agricultural and other productive land uses with the conservation of native vegetation (Binning & Young 1997).

Success of management agreements relies on:

• their development and promotion as a partnership between the parties; and
• maximisation of the values that are conserved for the wide benefit of all Australians (often referred to as 'stewardship').

Some management agreement mechanisms already operating include :

• New South Wales—voluntary conservation agreements, wildlife refuges, farming for the future, land for wildlife;
• Queensland—nature refuges;
• Victoria—land purchase, covenants, revolving funds, land management cooperative agreements, land for wildlife;
• South Australia—heritage agreements;
• Western Australia—remnant vegetation protection scheme, covenants;
• Tasmania—conservation covenant, private wildlife sanctuary, land for wildlife, forest stewardship agreements; and
• Northern Territory—covenants, partnership agreements.

Revolving funds

A revolving fund for biodiversity conservation involves the establishment of capital funds for purchasing land with conservation significance. When such land is purchased, a covenant is placed on its title to ensure future maintenance of identified conservation values. The land is then sold to sympathetic purchasers.

Revolving funds have the potential to be a highly effective incentive, particularly if it is accepted that it is difficult, if not impossible, to get resistant landholders to change management practices. Voluntary agreements are unlikely to be of assistance in securing sustainable management of vegetation on land owned by an individual who:

• does not value vegetation highly;
• is suspicious of government involvement; or
• is not attracted to binding agreements for areas of high conservation value.

As the property right is changed, via the revolving fund and covenant, it is more likely that a landholder committed to vegetation management will purchase the land.

Regional management plans

Regional vegetation management plans are increasingly being developed between the community and government to achieve long-term sustainable development based on agreed goals. Ideally, these plans should be integrated into other regional planning initiatives to achieve effective outcomes across a range of planning and management issues. Regional management plans provide an excellent tool for identifying strategic values of native vegetation and to assist in developing priorities and options for conservation action.

An holistic approach that considers the status of native vegetation on public and private land and associated biodiversity assets across all tenures is required to provide the context for development of the regional vegetation plans. Vegetation on public land in conservation reserves needs to be considered with respect to establishing conservation targets, and actively managing fire, weeds, feral animals, dieback and salinity. Regional vegetation plan actions should mainly focus on appropriate protection, and management and revegetation regimes over private and leasehold land.

Vegetation management programs on public and private land should consider links across the landscape and coordinated actions (e.g. pest plant and animal management). The vision identified in the regional vegetation plan will be achieved through a combination of public land management and vegetation management undertaken on private land.

Formal reserves

Formal reserve systems are established on a sound statutory basis. Typically they are established through an Executive Council and Parliamentary process which not only formally establishes the reserves in the network, but also requires Parliamentary approval to revoke previous reservation actions. This security of tenure is one of the key distinguishing features of formal reserves. Plans of management, prepared with public consultation and formally adopted, are also a feature of formal reserves, with implementation by a State-based government agency.

Reserve systems are devised to represent the array of ecosystems and natural and cultural features throughout the landscape. Increasingly they are based on fulfilling the principles of comprehensiveness (sampling all ecosystems), adequacy (long-term viability) and representativeness (sampling the variation within ecosystems), at least for natural heritage.

Indigenous Protected Areas

An Indigenous Protected Area is an area of land in relation to which traditional Indigenous owners have entered into a voluntary agreement to promote biodiversity and cultural resource conservation. Indigenous landowners are supported to manage their lands for the protection of natural and cultural features in accordance with internationally recognised standards and guidelines for the benefit of all Australians.

Landowners prepare a plan of management for the area they propose to declare as an Indigenous Protected Area. This may include:

• holding discussions with the relavant State/Territory conservation agencies and other agencies that may be able to support the project; and
• incorporating expert advice on the values of the Indigenous Protected Area and how these should be managed and protected.

Declaration is made by formal and public announcement of the intention to manage land as an Indigenous Protected Area according the prepared plan of management.

Protected areas in Australia have six Indigenous Protected Areas adding 507 087 ha of mainly World Conservation Union (IUCN) Category VI to the National Reserve System. Recent approved additions include:

• Wattarru in South Australia (1850000ha);
• Walalkara in South Australia (700000ha);
• Badger Island in Tasmania (1244 ha);
• Mt Chappell Island in Tasmania (325 ha);
• Guanaba in Queensland (99 ha);
• Dhimmuru in Northern Territory (92080ha);
• Warulkawa (Deliverence Island) in Queensland (3500 ha);
• Wattleridge in New South Wales (480ha); and
• Paruku in Western Australia (434588ha).

These contribute substantial areas of land to Australia's system of protected areas and provide a level of protection to Australia's native vegetation.

Identifying conservation values

One of the great challenges in developing a strategic approach to conservation of natural resources is understanding their spatial distribution, biological values and the ecosystem services they provide. The first step is to improve our knowledge base, in both theoretical and practical terms, about how to conserve, manage, enhance or re-establish native vegetation for various combinations of objectives at various scales.

Vegetation mapping is arguably one of the most valuable information requirements for conservation planning and natural resource management. Accurate vegetation maps at the appropriate scale enable conservation and land use planning and management, and provide baselines against which changes in vegetation type and extent can be measured.

Native vegetation on private or leasehold lands has not been a traditional focus of much vegetation mapping activity. Consequently, the information base of extent, type and condition of native vegetation on private lands is incomplete, fragmented and highly dispersed across a wide range of individuals and institutions within and outside government and academia. There is a great deal of local knowledge and insight among those involved in native vegetation management and revegetation activities but not much of this is formalised or widely accessible.

Improving the coverage and quality of our information base for native vegetation on private and leasehold land is a high priority for more effective natural resource management planning.

Information of vegetation extent, type and condition is more comprehensive for publicly owned land in the formal reserve system.

Native vegetation types in protected areas

Key findings

The World Conservation Union defines a protected area as:

An area of land or sea specially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biodiversity and associated cultural resources and management through legal and/or other effective means.

This definition is used in the analysis of vegetation types protected.

Gazetted formal protected areas total 7.8% of Australia's area. The Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania have more than 30% in protected areas and the Northern Territory and Queensland has less than 5% in protected areas (Table 37).

While the level of reservation may appear low for some States and Territories, important areas of some native vegetation types and ecosystems are included in their reserve system. Conversely, some native ecosystems may be inadequately protected in States and Territories that have high levels of reservation. To better understand the representativeness of vegetation types within protected areas, it is necessary to examine the area of each major vegetation group in protected areas. Figure 38 shows the relative proportion of major vegetation groups protected across Australia and the distribution of protected areas against major vegetation groups is presented in Figure 37.

Table 37: Area (km²) of protected areas in Australia in 2000 (Hardy 2001).

	Western Australia	Northern Territory	South Australia	Queensland	New South Wales	Australian Capital Territory	Victoria	Tasmania	Australia
Total land area	2,525,193	1,347,816	983,789	1,726,950	801,311	2,362	227,487	67,927	7,684,327
Total protected area	159,151	51,256	216,310	69,388	49,532	1,230	33,780	22,020	602,730
Percentage of land area protected	6.3	3.8	22.0	4.0	6.2	52.1	14.8	32.4	7.8

From Table 38 it can be seen that there are substantial areas of major vegetation groups previously discussed as being heavily impacted by clearing in protected areas, recognising that some vegetation groups are better protected that others.

Each State or Territory makes a major contribution to the protective management of particular major vegetation groups, including:

• New South Wales reserves protect significant areas of eucalypt open forests, eucalypt woodlands and callitris forests and woodlands;
• Northern Territory reserves protect significant areas of tropical eucalypt woodlands/grasslands and hummock grasslands;
• Queensland reserves protect significant areas of rainforest and vine thicket in the Wet Tropics area, plus melaleuca forests and woodlands, eucalypt woodlands, eucalypt open woodlands and tussock grasslands;
• South Australian reserves protect significant areas of casuarina forests and woodlands, other forests and woodlands (e.g. Myoporum woodlands), eucalypt open woodlands, mallee woodlands and shrublands, heath, other shrublands (e.g. Leptospermum shrublands), tussock grasslands, hummock grasslands, chenopod shrublands and claypan and saltlake communities;
• Tasmanian reserves protect significant areas of rainforest, low closed forests and closed shrublands and other grasslands, herblands, sedgelands and rushlandss (e.g. the extensive button grass plains in the World Heritage Area);
• Victorian reserves protect significant areas of eucalypt tall open forests and eucalypt woodlands; and
• Western Australian reserves protect significant areas of acacia forests and woodlands, tropical eucalypt woodlands/grasslands, mallee woodlands and shrublands, acacia shrublands, heath, hummock grasslands and chenopod and samphire shrubs.

Table 38: Area (km²) of major vegetation groups in protected areas.

Major vegetation group	Western Australia	Northern Territory	South Australia	Queensland	New South Wales	Australian Capital Territory	Victoria	Tasmania	Australia
Rainforest and vine thickets	0	265	0	5,058	1,545	0	134	4,241	11,244
Eucalypt tall open forests	554	0	0	48	1,286	4	4,550	1,569	8,011
Eucalypt open forests	1,705	6,806	87	4,016	21,580	858	2,844	3,657	41,552
Eucalypt low open forests	106	70	17	104	509	42	77	31	957
Eucalypt woodlands	9,543	4,280	1,311	15,437	10,478	179	7,887	1,420	50,534
Acacia forests and woodlands	8,065	10	659	3,326	539	0	97	6	12,701
Callitris forests and woodlands	0	0	220	67	1,157	4	279	0	1,728
Casuarina forests and woodlands	163	0	7,363	223	647	2	42	16	8,457
Melaleuca forests and woodlands	348	1,695	1	5,744	1	0	24	0	7,812
Other forests and woodlands	751	127	10,731	2,197	2	0	1,290	252	15,350
Eucalypt open woodlands	4,236	8,190	7,050	6,990	2,166	48	333	33	29,047
Tropical eucalypt woodlands/grasslands	10,073	17,072	0	1,757	0	0	0	0	28,903
Acacia open woodlands	75	24	8,953	1,899	8	0	0	0	10,959
Mallee woodlands and shrublands	14,763	1,318	47,809	0	2,919	0	8,675	0	75,484
Low closed forests and closed shrublands	276	0	2	115	31	0	403	1,388	2,214
Acacia shrublands	12,427	1,305	2,748	2,073	1,664	0	5	3	20,225
Other shrublands	4,291	1	9,374	1,863	23	7	2,390	329	18,278
Heath	5,294	0	2,011	140	730	9	1,405	765	10,354
Tussock grasslands	2,314	701	6,166	5,033	1,994	40	165	144	16,556
Hummock grasslands	54,689	5,870	54,404	10,441	0	0	0	0	125,403
Other grasslands herblands, sedgelands and rushlands	873	1,913	261	405	204	0	395	6,385	10,437
Chenopod shrubs, samphire shrub and forblands	21,363	441	32,696	2,003	740	0	704	5	57,952
Mangroves, tidal mudflats, samphires and bare areas claypans, sand, rock, salt lakes, lagoons, lakes	3,127	265	22,900	633	300	10	272	733	28,240

Methods

Data on the extent of native vegetation found within protected areas was analysed by intersection of the major vegetation groups with spatial data from the Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (Hardy 2001).

Limitations

The Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database contains all gazetted formal protected areas within Australia, current to 2000 in Tasmania and to 1999 for other States and Territories. As the data relates to gazetted areas only it does not include many new reserves (approximately two million hectares) declared through the Regional Forest Agreement process in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. It therefore underrates the level of protection afforded to forest communities such as rainforest and vine thickets, eucalypt tall open forests and eucalypt open forests. The data also does not include other recent protected area declarations where they have yet to be gazetted under State and Territory legislation and boundaries reliably defined.

The analysis, in keeping with the World Conservation Union definition, excludes:

• World Heritage Areas unless formally reserved; and
• other informal reserves (e.g. other crown reserves and private reserved lands).

These tenures would add considerably to the areas in protective management for some of the vegetation groups.

Change in area of vegetation protected between 1968 and 2000

Key findings

Table 39 outlines changes in area of the major vegetation groups found within protected areas over time. Figure 39 presents the change in extent of protected areas for 1968, 1979, 1982, 1988, 1997 and 2000.

All major vegetation groups most affected by clearing have had dramatic increases in their area within protected areas since 1968.

The protected area of many vegetation groups appears to have increased substantially from 1969 to 1979. Exceptions are:

• other forests and woodlands and tussock grasslands: major additions to the protected area for these groups occurred from 1979 to 1989; and
• rainforest and vine thickets, eucalypt tall open forests, acacia open woodlands, mallee woodlands and shrublands, chenopod shrublands and saltpan and saltlake communities: major additions to the protected area occurred from 1988 to 1998.

There are important stories of protected area declarations associated with these dramatic increases in the protected area of native vegetation. The declaration of the 1.3 million hectare Lake Eyre National Park in 1985 and the 1.8 million hectare Gibson Desert Nature Reserve in 1977 made substantial contributions to reservation of their particular vegetation groups. Smaller reserves have also made important contributions to the protection of specific vegetation associations and associated wildlife habitats.

Methods

The major vegetation groups were intersected with the Time Series of Protected Areas in Australia (1967-1989) polygon boundaries for each date, the Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database 1997 and the Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database 2000. Only information on terrestrial reserves are presented.

Limitations

The time series database was developed using hardcopy maps (for polygon information) and published lists of protected areas (centroids). For all years other than 1968 and 1979, areas under 5000 ha are represented as points and areas greater than 5000 ha are represented as polygons.

The data compiled for each year in the time series are based on a mixture of pre-existing digital data sets (CAPAD 1997) and digitised maps. Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database 1997 and Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database 2000 are a compilation of State and Territory protected area data sets. Further information on the sources of information and changes in the protected areas between 1967 and 1989 can be found in Cresswell and Thomas (1997) and Hardy (2001).

Table 39: Change in area (ha) of major vegetation groups protected from 1968 to 2000.

Major vegetation group	1968	1979	1982	1988	1997	2000
Rainforest and vine thickets	1,993	3,739	4,223	5,707	9,720	11,244
Eucalypt tall open forests	709	1,545	2,939	4,108	7,730	8,011
Eucalypt open forests	10,511	19,316	19,033	26,588	34,331	41,553
Eucalypt low open forests	192	657	699	827	1,006	957
Eucalypt woodlands	4,193	17,749	27,429	36,213	48,426	50,535
Acacia forests and woodlands	68	8,528	8,528	9,193	12,062	12,701
Callitris forests and woodlands	125	1,254	1,284	1,464	1,691	1,728
Casuarina forests and woodlands	137	7,148	7,220	7,337	8,300	8,457
Melaleuca forests and woodlands	424	5,765	5,935	6,709	7,804	7,812
Other forests and woodlands	110	1,937	2,251	10,493	15,135	15,350
Eucalypt open woodlands	732	10,799	15,180	21,216	25,928	29,047
Tropical Eucalypt woodlands/grasslands	996	16,155	15,956	26,614	28,308	28,903
Acacia open woodlands	97	172	172	254	10,892	10,959
Mallee woodlands and shrublands	3,266	26,519	27,591	30,734	70,976	75,485
Low closed forests and closed shrublands	285	670	671	1,204	2,152	2,215
Acacia shrublands	1,656	10,179	10,410	15,364	19,552	20,225
Other shrublands	913	9,974	10,370	11,508	17,887	18,279
Heath	1,540	6,356	6,769	7,030	10,185	10,354
Tussock grasslands	652	3,372	3,397	10,923	12,862	16,556
Hummock grasslands	43,587	101,133	101,133	105,763	123,636	125,404
Other grasslands, herblands, sedgelands and rushlands	1,460	5,076	4,214	6,287	10,434	10,438
Chenopod shrubs, samphire shrubs and forblands	458	25,555	25,682	30,187	56,008	57,952
Mangroves, tidal mudflats, samphires and bare areas, claypans, sand, rock, salt lakes, lagoons, lakes	608	4,731	4,754	13,639	28,693	28,242
Total area protected	74,712	288,330	305,840	389,361	563,718	592,407

Moving towards a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of protected areas

Key findings

A systematic approach to nature conservation is essential to efficiently and effectively protect biodiversity and a framework is needed for describing biodiversity and for planning its conservation (Sattler & Williams 1999). Biodiversity can be described in a range of ways:

• plant species;
• groups of plant species (vegetation types); and
• ecosystems that incorporate the environments in which vegetation types occur (e.g. climate, landforms, geology and soils).

Ecosystems are the preferred biodiversity assessment framework and are being increasingly recognised as reflecting the biotic and abiotic elements of the landscape (Sattler & Williams 1999). The IBRA bioregions are the accepted landscape framework for Australia (Cresswell & Thomas 1997). The IBRA subregions, further divide the IBRA bioregions and delineate the major geomorphic patterns, providing a more robust framework with greater resolution for analysing the distribution of landscapes.

The Australia and New Zealand Environment Conservation Council National Reserve System Taskforce have adopted the notion that comprehensiveness is assessed at an IBRA bioregion level and representativeness at an IBRA subregion level (i.e. ecosystems have IBRA targets , and we apply a a subregional framework to ensure that sampling occurs across their geographical range).

Table 40 provides an overview of the number of major vegetation groups within each of the reservation classes of the five IBRA bioregions with less than 30% of native vegetation remaining.

These results show that the protection status for the vegetation in these regions is low. The majority of the major vegetation groups in each region fall below reservation Class 3 with less than 10% of the pre-European extent of the vegetation group in a protected area.

The reservation classes from the Avon Wheatbelt bioregion (Table 41) have been mapped as an example (Figure 40) along with the major vegetation groups.

Table 40. Number of major vegetation groups by reservation class for IBRA bioregions with less than 30% of native vegetation remaining.

Bioregion	Class 1	Class 2	Class 3	Class 4	Class 5	Class 6
	0%	< 5%	5-10%	10-15%	15-30%	> 30%
South East Coastal Plain	-	9	1	2	2	2
Victorian Midlands	3	4	3	-	2	3
Victorian Volcanic Plain	8	3	2	1	2	-
Naracoorte Coastal Plain	4	4	2	-	3	4
Avon Wheatbelt	4	9	2	-	-	-

Table 41: Avon Wheatbelt (IBRA70) reservation analysis.

	Eucalypt tall open forests	Eucalypt open forests	Eucalypt woodlands	Acacia forests and woodlands	Casuarina forests and woodlands	Melaleuca forests and woodlands	Other forests and woodlands	Eucalypt open woodlands
Native vegetation (ha)	4	720	525,408	4	6,836	532	952	36,588
Cleared vegetation (ha)	36	1,696	92	152	17,668	2,012	4,532	4,824,552
Pre-European vegetation (ha)	40	2,416	525,500	156	24,504	2,544	5,484	4,861,140
Protected area (ha)	0	0	30,672	0	332	180	120	7,860
Percent native vegetation in protected area	0.0	0.0	5.8	0.0	1.4	7.1	2.2	0.2
Reservation class	1	1	3	1	2	3	2	1

---

	Mallee woodlands and shrublands	Low closed forests and closed shrublands	Acacia shrublands	Other shrublands	Heath	Chenopod shrubs, samphire shrubs and forblands	Mangrove Group
Native vegetation (ha)	87,024	52,176	271,356	216,184	31,916	103,800	51,580
Cleared vegetation (ha)	813,108	339,224	488,420	848,204	387,540	235,996	168,876
Pre-European vegetation (ha)	900,132	391,400	759,776	1,064,388	419,456	339,796	220,456
Protected area (ha)	5,272	4,736	12,708	14,984	6,040	6,968	5,448
Percent native vegetation in protected area	0.0	1.2	1.7	1.4	1.4	2.1	2.5
Reservation class	2	2	2	2	2	2	2

Methods

The data incorporated into the National Vegetation Information System describe the vegetation types and do not delineate ecosystems. Any assessment of nature conservation priorities using the National Vegetation Information System will therefore be based on an assessment of the vegetation types.

Interpretations based on vegetation types must remember that the vegetation is heterogeneous and may mask internal ecosystem diversity of the broad vegetation groups. While progress in ecosystem mapping varies across Australia, it is unlikely to be completed for many years or at all.

The Audit's major vegetation groups therefore provide a broad base for assessing the representativeness of reserves and providing input based on vegetation types into the setting of priorities for reservation. Further analyses should be undertaken at finer levels of vegetation classification.

Analysis of the adequacy of existing levels of native vegetation protection requires examining the comprehensiveness of the protected area estate in sampling native ecosystems and, ideally, vegetation communities. This analysis examines the area of major vegetation groups within protected areas as an estimate of the proportion of the notional pre-European extent of these groups sampled in protected areas.

The extent of each major vegetation group found within protected areas within each IBRA bioregion was then calculated as a proportion of this notional pre-European extent. This provides an estimate of overall representativeness (Table 42).

Table 42. Bioregional reservation classes.

Reservation class	Level of reservation compared to pre-European extent
1	Nil
2	< 5%
3	5-10%
4	11-15%
5	16-30%
6	> 30%

These reservation classes relate to contemporary views on appropriate levels of protection in the development of a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of protected areas (e.g. a broad goal of 10% of the pre-European extent of native ecosystems has been used informally for many years as a guide to assess the adequacy of reservation levels). In the Regional Forest Agreement process, formal reservation targets were developed through the JANIS National Reserve Criteria (Commonwealth of Australia 1997a) recommending 15% of pre-European extent of forest ecosystems, unless ecosystems were rare or threatened, in which case higher targets applied.

Limitations

This analysis, as discussed in the methods, is a surrogate for mapping and priority setting at an ecosystem scale. Reservation priorities also need to take account of other factors, including:

• tenure;
• threats to the ecosystems;
• shape of areas that might be reserved; and
• whether there are resources available for their management above and beyond the management activities of the land's existing managers.

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