Australian Native Vegetation Assessment 2001
Maria Cofinas, Colin Creighton
National Land and Water Resources Audit, 2001
ISBN 0 642 37128 8
Summary
Photo: Murray-Darling Basin Commission
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Parliament House
Canberra, ACT 2600
Minister for Environment and Heritage
Parliament House
Canberra, ACT 2600
Dear Ministers
I have pleasure in presenting to you Australian Native Vegetation Assessment 2001 - a report of the National Land and Water Resources Audit (Audit).
This report details major advances made by the Audit and its partners to implement an information system for Australia's vegetation. This system has required the development and agreement to guidelines, data protocols, access arrangements and procedures to compile and keep up to date consistent data about Australia's vegetation.
Both pre-European and present native vegetation information is summarised in this report. The vegetation information is at the best available scales and is based on over 100 data sets mapped by agencies over the last 15 years. Importantly, through the Australian Natural Resources Atlas, this information is now publicly available, providing support to a broad range of activities from regional planning to Australia wide policy making.
The report demonstrates some of the applications of the National Vegetation Information System. These include providing information for setting priorities for nature conservation, catchment management initiatives and regional vegetation management planning.
The National Vegetation Information System is already being used by the Australian Greenhouse Office to add further precision in the National Carbon Accounting System. As part of the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality, the native vegetation information system is being used to help identify vegetation types at risk from increases in the extent of dryland salinity. Environment Australia is using the information to assist with implementing the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cwlth) and guiding funding priorities for the Bushcare program.
Much remains to be done in Australia as we address priority native vegetation management challenges and provide information to underpin natural resources decisions. Key priorities from an information perspective include:
- continued and targeted mapping and collection of key additional native vegetation information to complement that already compiled;
- implementation of a more distributed data management system so that data custodians can continually update, make accessible and provide interpretations of their part of the massive data set compiled by this initiative; and
- development of additional components, including readily accessible information in all States and Territories on native vegetation clearing and native vegetation condition.
A consistent and continued effort to improve native vegetation information and make it available to the community is needed. This will be best achieved through partnership with States and Territories.
The Audit is pleased to report that Environment Australia has volunteered to undertake the ongoing role of national coordinator for the native vegetation data and products. Transition arrangements from the Audit to Environment Australia and continued coordination activity with Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australia provide an excellent foundation for continued progress. This will ensure that the Audit's sixth objective as set by the Natural Heritage Trust Ministerial Board- providing a framework for monitoring Australia's land, vegetation and water resources in an ongoing and structured way- is achieved for native vegetation.
I have pleasure in presenting you with this report on Australia's native vegetation.
Yours sincerely,
Roy Green
Chair
National Land and Water Resources Audit Advisory Council
November 2001
About the Australian Native Vegetation Assessment 2001
Australian Native Vegetation Assessment 2001 is the first regional scale and collaborative Australia-wide assessment of the type and extent of Australia's native vegetation.
Consistent and comparable information on native vegetation has been called for by many for some time-including Commonwealth, State and regional natural resource management policy and decision makers. The history of vegetation data management in Australia up till now has been for State and Territory and Commonwealth agencies to map vegetation as a one off project or program without underlying standard guidelines. Some States had standardised mapping within their boundaries and now, as a result of the Audit's investment, all are developing comparable systems Australia-wide.
The National Vegetation Information System was developed in response to this need for a consistent approach to native vegetation and standardises vegetation data Australia wide, delivering efficiencies in storing, analysing and reporting on vegetation data and underpinning and making possible the Australian assessment of native vegetation.
Data management - defining the National Vegetation Information System
The National Vegetation Information System was developed to ensure that native vegetation data is consistent, comparable and useful for a range of users. It provides guidelines and defines the minimum requirements for the compilation of vegetation data across Australia and was designed to be compliant with the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure.
The National Vegetation Information System information hierarchy defines a classification for describing the structural and floristic patterns of Australia's vegetation and reporting on vegetation types for a range of users at a range of scales. The hierarchy consists of six levels from a broad classification of trees and shrubs to detailed structural and floristic information on all layers in a vegetation type.
Once agreement on the National Vegetation Information System was reached, State and Territory agencies compiled pre-European and present native vegetation data from their existing data holdings. This involved over 100 data sets covering about two-thirds of Australia. From the National Vegetation Information System data 23 major vegetation groups were agreed as the basis to report on Australia's native vegetation. These groups summarise the broad structural and floristic groupings of Australia's native vegetation from which more detailed information at lower levels in the hierarchy can be obtained.
Australia's native vegetation at a glance
Following compilation of vegetation data, assessment reveals:
Type and extent of present native vegetation
- Australia is dominated by a few plant genera ranging across the broad range of structural vegetation types. Eucalypts and acacia species are widespread and occur as forests, woodlands and shrublands. The hummock grasslands cover vast areas of the arid interior.
- Hummock grasslands cover 23% of Australia followed by the eucalypt woodlands with 17% extent, acacia forests, woodlands and shrublands with 17% extent, chenopod/samphire shrublands, other shrubs and forblands at 10% and tussock grasslands another 7% of the continent.
- Smaller areas are dominated by eucalypt forests (4%), mallee woodlands and shrublands (3%), callitris, casuarina and melaleuca forests and woodlands (2%), rainforests and vine thickets (0.4%), heaths (0.3%), other grasslands, herblands, sedgelands and rushlands with approximately 1% extent.
- About 32% of Australia's native vegetation in the intensively used areas (primarily the agricultural and urban zones) have been cleared or substantially modified.
- Information is analysed by basin and subregions on percent of remaining vegetation. Twenty-five out of 245 basins and 42 out of 354 subregions have less than 30% remaining native vegetation.
Cleared vegetation types
Clearing of native vegetation has occurred for human settlement and agriculture in the higher rainfall regions and where there are more fertile soils, generally excluding the arid interior and tropical far north.
Major vegetation groups most affected by clearing include:
Eucalypt woodlands and eucalypt open woodlands: approximately 31% and 25% of pre-European extent has been cleared, accounting for 32% and 13% respectively of all clearing-Eucalypt woodlands and eucalypt open woodlands are an important component of cereal cropping and pastoral zones. Cleared areas are very extensive, with the broad fabric of the landscape from a native vegetation perspective lost.
Inland acacia forests and woodlands: approximately 15% of pre-European extent cleared, accounting for 10% of all clearing. Agricultural and pastoral development has led to major changes in extent and condition of these landscapes, especially in brigalow ( Acacia harpophylla ) and mulga ( A. aneura ) communities.
Mallee woodlands and shrublands: approximately 35% of pre-European extent has been cleared, accounting for 14% of all clearing. As with the Brigalow Belt, encouragement for clearing was provided by government in the temperate mallee woodlands areas. Clearing was encouraged for cereal cropping and pastoralism and was often a condition of leases.
Rainforest communities: most lowland occurrences have been cleared, approximately 30% of pre-European extent has been cleared, accounting for 1% of all clearing. The broad range of rainforest and vine thicket communities across Australia found within this major vegetation group masks the level of regional depletion of some rainforest and vine thicket types.
Heath communities: approximately 45% of pre-European extent has been cleared, accounting for 2% of all clearing. Heathlands have been heavily impacted by clearing for sand mining, agriculture, grazing or development mainly in southern coastal areas. Mallee communities, which occur in association with some heath communities, have similarly had extensive areas cleared, mainly for pastoral development in Victoria and South Australia.
Tussock grasslands: approximately 10% of pre-European extent has been cleared, accounting for 6% of all clearing. Many of the tussock grasslands of eastern Australia have been either substantially cleared or heavily modified by grazing. The mapping of this type in the National Vegetation Information System reflects where there is good information on native grasslands. There are known to be many other areas either not mapped or subject to change through grazing and introduced pasture grasses.
Informing vegetation management
Two Australia-wide applications demonstrate the use of well compiled vegetation data.
Nature conservation
- The protection status of the major vegetation groups in bioregions with less than 30% native vegetation remaining is relatively low. Many of the 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.
Regions with relatively small areas of vegetation remaining pose many challenges in achieving a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of protected areas.
Fragmentation of native vegetation
- Out of 42 subregions with less than 30% native vegetation remaining, 22 are highly fragmented. These have greater than 30% of their remaining vegetation in fragments smaller than 1000 hectares, demonstrating the challenges ahead if we are to repair native vegetation connectivity in these landscapes.
Continuing to consolidate management relevant data on Australia's vegetation
The Audit focused on the collation of the best available existing information on the type and extent of pre-European and present native vegetation. Not all areas of Australia have been mapped and much of the data available is far from complete.
An assessment of the gaps in our knowledge reveals:
- thematic (information and knowledge) gaps (e.g. limited mapping of grasslands and shrublands, lack of comprehensive and comparable information on the condition of the native vegetation);
- spatial (scale and geographic coverage) gaps (e.g. many areas of South Australia and the Gulf country in Queensland);
- currency (date) of mapping (e.g. Western Australian present vegetation mapping ranges from the 1970s to the 1990s);
- vegetation classification level gaps (e.g. large areas of New South Wales mapped to Level III); and
- variable reliability of survey and mapping methods.
Much remains to be done, but with the framework provided by the National Vegetation Information System and setting of priorities, we can start to cost-effectively invest in further data collection activities.
Sprengelia incanata, Gymnoschoeus spaerocephalus, Melaleuca squamea, near Scotts Peak Dam, Tas.
Photo: Murray Fagg
The way forward: an Australia-wide data management initiative to underpin native vegetation management
Promoting the Native Vegetation Assessment 2001 outcomes. Applications of the information system and the assessment will inform governments and the community about the role of native vegetation in natural resource management and biodiversity planning. The information compiled will contribute to initiatives such as the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality and Natural Heritage Trust.
Keeping guidelines and information relevant. Environment Australia will act as the national coordinator supported by a partnership with Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australia and the States and Territories to continue the work of providing comparable and consistent data sets Australia wide.
Ensuring continued information and updating through cooperative arrangements. A continued Australia-wide approach underpinned by a distributed information system-all States and Territories have agreed to continue working in partnership with Commonwealth agencies towards this goal.
Strategic investment. Collecting and collating data and information on key gaps and to meet natural resources management priorities.
Landscape scale information. Linking the National Vegetation Information System to other natural resource information including land use mapping and developing an improved understanding of the role of vegetation in landscape function, assisting natural resource and biodiversity planning and management.
Vegetation change and condition. Information on changes in vegetation type and extent can be used as a basis for condition monitoring. Australian Native Vegetation Assessment 2001 provides a framework for assessments, monitoring and reporting of the status of native vegetation.
Stocktake and evaluation. Evaluating progress, incorporating new methods of vegetation mapping and data analysis, undertaking future assessments at a maximum of five-yearly intervals based on the National Vegetation Information System 2000 baseline and ensuring relevance to broader natural resource management activities.
Management relevance. Based on good information, we can develop targets for native vegetation management and its application to salinity management, erosion control and biodiversity conservation across all regions of Australia.
Making information available
It is essential that Australia capitalises and builds on the data collection investment of this initiative and puts in place long term Australia-wide assessment and reporting systems with the ability to produce information products at a variety of scales suitable for national, State/Territory and regional assessments.
The Australian Natural Resources Atlas starts this process and provides access to the wealth of information compiled on Australia's native vegetation by the Audit and its partners.
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