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 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