Rangelands Protected Area 2004-2010 - Updated Information to That Provided in Rangelands

Rangelands Protected Area 2004-2010

Updated information to that provided in
Rangelands 2008 – Taking the pulse

Gary Bastin, ACRIS Management Unit
CSIRO, PO Box 2111, Alice SpringsNT 0871
(email: )

This project is supported by Ninti One Limited,

through funding from the Australian Government's Caring for our Country

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government or the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.
While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the contents of this publication are factually correct, the Commonwealth does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the contents, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of, or reliance on, the contents of this publication.

Rangelands Protected Area 2004-2010

Updated information to that provided in
Rangelands 2008 – Taking the pulse

Gary Bastin, ACRIS Management Unit, CSIRO, PO Box 2111, Alice Springs NT 0871

Key points

Using data compiled in the Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD), the formally protected area within Australia’s rangelands increased from 606,931 km2 in 2004 to 745,042 km2 in 2010. The increase of 138,111 km2 represents 2.2% of the rangelands area and brought the protected area in 2010 to 12% of the rangelands.

At bioregion resolution, the greatest percentage increases in protected area between 2004 and 2010 occurred in the northern non-pastoral Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA 7) regions (Arnhem Plateau, Arnhem Coast, Tanami, Central Arnhem and Gulf Coastal). An additional 7.3% to 53.9% of the area of each IBRA region was listed within CAPAD across these bioregions. Lesser percentage increases in protected area occurred over the same period in the pastorally more important bioregions of Finke, Brigalow Belt South, Central Kimberley and Murray Darling Depression (a further 2.6% to 5.2% of IBRA area protected). The percentage of IBRA area protected elsewhere in the rangelands between 2004 and 2010 remained stable or increased slightly (generally <5%).

Further biennial change in formally recognised protected area within the rangelands can be reported by accessing the Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (see URL below).

Introduction

For many years, the Commonwealth and states and territories have been active in establishing a system of parks or reserves to protect habitats for biota. Protected areas form part of Australia’sNational Reserve System (NRS,

Change from 2000 to 2004 in the extent of protected area within each rangeland bioregion was reported in Rangelands 2008 – Taking the pulse (pages 82-85). These, and more recent data, are compiled, on a biennial basis, in the Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD, Increases in the protected area in rangeland bioregions between 2004 and 2010 are summarised here.

Protected areas within CAPAD are grouped into six different conservation management categories as described below. These categories follow the World Conservation Union (IUCN) classification system (see with all management categories meeting the requirements for inclusion in the National Reserve System. The IUCN management categories are:

IAStrict nature reserve: protected area managed mainly for science.

1BWilderness area: protected area managed mainly for wilderness protection.

IINational park: protected area managed mainly for ecosystem conservation and recreation.

IIINatural monument or feature: protected area managed for conservation of specific natural features.

IVHabitat/species management area: protected area managed mainly for conservation through management intervention.

VProtected landscape/seascape: protected area managed mainly for landscape/seascape conservation and recreation.

VIProtected area with sustainable use of natural resources: protected area managed mainly for the sustainable use of natural ecosystems.

While governance and institutional arrangements vary between jurisdictions, four types of protected areas are recognised in the National Reserve System. These are:public reserves (or government-owned), Indigenous Protected Areas, private protected areas and shared management reserves.

A fundamental requirement of any area’s eligibility for inclusion withinthe National Reserve System is that it must meet the IUCN definition ofa ‘protected area’, that is ‘A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated andmanaged, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-termconservation of nature with associated ecosystem services andcultural values.’While Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) are inherently different from publicprotected areas in terms of formal security of conservation tenure and their governing institutions, management arrangements to secure biodiversity conservation can be made through other effective means. This includes arrangements such as management plans that specifically take into account Indigenous cultural issues and Native Title rights in the development of the National Reserve System [NRS Strategy]. However, the statutory security of all protected areas, including IPAs, remains dependent on the underlying jurisdictional tenure legislation.

An IPA is Indigenous-owned land or sea where traditional owners have entered into an agreement with the Australian Government to promote biodiversity and cultural resource conservation. Based on the IUCN guidelines IPAs are included in the Australian Government's reporting of the National Reserve System, making up almost 25 per cent of the total NRS area in 2010. As such, IPAs are the single governance-type responsible for the largest increase in protected area size within the National Reserve System to 2010.

Additional areas in the rangelands are privatelymanaged for conservation through ownership by non-government organisations such as the Australian Wildlife Conservancy,Australian Bush Heritage, Greening Australia and The Nature Conservancy. These areas are not included in this reporting.

Progress on adding protected areas: 2004-2010

A further 139,702 km2 in the rangelands were added to CAPAD reporting of the National Reserve System between 2004 and 2010, bringing the total protected area to 746,633 km2(12% of the rangelands, Table 1). The sequential increases in protected area to 2008 and 2010 are mapped in Fig. 1.

Figure 1. Change in CAPAD’s reporting of the extent of protected areas within the rangelands, 2004 to 2010. The area protected in 2004 is shown in blue, that added by 2008 shown in green and further additions to 2010 shown in red. IBRA v7 boundaries mapped. See Table 1 for IBRA names and areas protected in 2010.

Data: CAPAD – Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database. Map: the ACRIS-MU.

The largest increases in protected area between 2004 and 2010 occurred within non-pastoral bioregions in northern Australia (Table 1). This included the:

• Arnhem Plateau (NT) with an additional 12,734 km2 protected in 2010 (equivalent to 55.2% of the IBRA area).
• Arnhem Coast (NT) – a further 9,692 km2 protected between 2004 and 2010 (some 31.6% of the IBRA area).
• Tanami (NT & WA) – a ten-fold (40,301 km2) expansion in protected area during the six years and equivalent to 15.5% of IBRA area.
• Cape York Peninsula (Queensland) – an increase of 9,970 km2 in protected area (8.2% of IBRA area).
• Central Arnhem (NT) – no area recorded as protected in CAPAD 2004. 2,627 km2 added to the database between 2004 and 2010 to protect 7.6% of the IBRA in 2010.
• Gulf Coastal (NT) – a 1,959 km2 increase in protected area (a 68% increase on the area protected in 2004) to now conserve 7.4% of the IBRA.

Lesser proportional increases in protected area occurred over the same period within some of the pastorally dominant bioregions, most notably:

• The Finke IBRA where an additional 2,991 km2 was protected in 2010 (equivalent to 4.1% of the bioregion).
• An additional 2,898 km2was protected between 2004 and 2010 in the rangelands component of the Brigalow Belt South IBRA, a 77% increase on that area reserved in 2004.
• A similar proportional increase in protected area for the Central Kimberley – a further 3.2% of the IBRA (comprising 2,494 km2) included in CAPAD between 2004 and 2010.
• A further 2,673 km2 of the Murray Darling Depression listed in CAPAD in 2010 compared with 2004. This increase represented 2.6% of the IBRA area.

IBRA 7 boundaries were used to calculate and compare areas.

Further information

Further information about the Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database, including licensed access to the spatial data, can be found at

Change in rangelands protected area between 2000 and 2004 was reported in Rangelands 2008 – Taking the pulse (Bastin, G. the ACRIS Management Committee, 2008,published on behalf of the ACRIS Management Committee by the National Land and Water Resources Audit, Canberra. Available at:

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Table 1. Area of each IUCN category, and total area, protected within each rangeland bioregion in 2010. Also shown is the percentage increase in total conserved area within each IBRA since release of the CAPAD 2004 data (the end date for reporting protected areas in Rangelands 2008 – Taking the pulse). IUCN categories are described at the end of the table. IBRA v7 mapping used for spatial analysis.

IUCN categoryDescription

IAStrict nature reserve: protected area managed mainly for science

IBWilderness area: protected area managed mainly for wilderness protection

IINational park: protected area managed mainly for ecosystem conservation and recreation

IIINatural monument or feature: protected area managed for conservation of specific natural features

IVHabitat/species management area: protected area managed mainly for conservation through management intervention

VProtected landscape/seascape: protected area managed mainly for landscape/seascape conservation and recreation

VIProtected area with sustainable use of natural resources: protected area managed mainly for the sustainable use of natural ecosystems

Note that CAPAD also reports area statistics at Those IBRA by IUCN-category areas differ for some rangeland bioregions because they include “NRS gazettal in progress” properties (i.e. “gazettal in progress” properties were not included in this update).

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