Victoria Naturally Alliance program overview

A SHARED VISION Victoria’s catchments, coasts and marine waters have flourishing biodiversity, healthy ecosystems and resilient ecological processes that are highly valued, PANTONE 383 U

securely protected, sustainably

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managed and effectively restored by community and gover nments. l ogo rule s

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The team Project Leader Carrie Deutsch Phone: (03) 9341 6512 / 0438 003 037 | Fax: (03) 9347 5199 Email: carried@vnpa.org.au

Biodiversity Campaigner Karen Alexander Phone: (03) 9347 5188 / 0439 306 829 | Fax: (03) 9347 5199 Email: karena@vnpa.org.au

Communications Adviser John Sampson Phone: (03) 9341 6508 / 0421 633 299 | Fax: (03) 9347 5199 Email: johns@vnpa.org.au

Address The Victoria Naturally Alliance is based in the office of the Victorian National Parks Association, Level 3, 60 Leicester St, Carlton – 3053.

On the web: www.victorianaturally.vnpa.org.au

Our supporters The Victoria Naturally Alliance gratefully acknowledges the generous support provided by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, John T Reid Charitable Trusts, Reichstein Foundation and The Wilderness Society Dara Foundation WildCountry Small Grants Program.

Photo credits: Cover – Powerful Owl, Lyn and Geoff Easton; Coral Fern, Nic McCaffrey; Sugar Glider, David Fletcher. Page 2 – Gang Gang Cockatoo, Jenny Barnett; Southern Dumpling Squid, William Boyle. Page 5 – Yellow Jelly Bells, John Sampson; Mountain Pygmy Possum, Glenn Johnson/DSE. Page 7 – Box-Ironbark forest, David Neilson; Blue Devil, Tony Stewart. Page 11 – Tarra Bulga eucalypts, David Neilson.

Page 15 - Australian Fur Seals, Parks Victoria & Mary Malloy; Veined Sun Orchid, Phil Ingamells. Note: all photos by David Fletcher have been taken from the book Project Hindmarsh – 10 Years and Beyond, by Melissa Pouliot.

Victoria Naturally Alliance Program Overview

Victoria Naturally Alliance The Victoria Naturally Alliance, which is made up of eight environment groups led by the Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA), has been created to work towards restoring the health of Victoria’s biodiversity, which after years of land clearance and habitat fragmentation is in a state of crisis.

The alliance includes the Australian Conservation Foundation, Environment Victoria, Greening Australia (Vic), The Wilderness Society, Trust for Nature, Bush Heritage Australia and the Invasive Species Council.

Our vision Victoria’s catchments, coasts and marine waters have flourishing biodiversity, healthy ecosystems and resilient ecological processes that are highly valued, securely protected, sustainably managed and effectively restored by community and governments.

Our alliance The alliance will initially focus on raising awareness about solving Victoria’s biodiversity crisis and ensuring that the State Government’s Land and Biodiversity White Paper is a strong and robust document, setting the framework for biodiversity protection, enhancement and restoration in Victoria for the next 20 to 50 years.

Our role The alliance’s strength comes from a unique partnership between policy and on-ground environment groups. Our key role is to coordinate and identify opportunities to align policy development, activities and communications between the groups and achieve maximum results.

The partnership model for the Victoria Naturally Alliance is to work together on peak issues such as the White Paper, with the lead for specific projects being taken by member organisations.

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Victoria’s catchments, coasts and marine waters have flourishing biodiversity, healthy ecosystems and resilient ecological processes that are highly valued, securely protected, sustainably managed and effectively restored by community and governments. x

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a shared vision MINIMUM SIZE 2cm

Victoria Naturally Alliance Program Overview

Time for real change Victoria’s natural environment is in a state of crisis. Over the past 170 years we have cleared 70% of the state, leaving highly fragmented landscapes.

This large-scale clearance, combined with a plethora of threats such as invasive species, has had devastating impacts on our wildlife and ecosystems. Nearly a third of our animals and close to half our native plants are extinct or threatened with extinction.

Many of the valuable ecosystem services we take for granted, including clean water and soils, are also under threat.

The trend continues even now, with the Catchment Condition Report 20071 revealing a serious failure to stem the decline of our state’s land and water resources.

A recent report2 published by the United Nations Environment Program reinforces the urgency for action. It warns that the world’s sixth major extinction is underway and that global biodiversity changes are “the fastest in human history”.

Species are becoming extinct a hundred

Victoria’s faunal emblem, the tiny Leadbeaters Possum, is at risk of becoming extinct if numbers continue to plummet.

Photo: Natalie Holland

times faster than the rate shown in the fossil record. More than 30 per cent of the world’s amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are threatened, the report says.

Add the increasing pressures of climate change, which are expected to force many species out of their current habitat range, and it’s easy to see why Victoria’s natural environment is in urgent need of repair.

We need to reconnect fragmented landscapes and secure our future against climate change.

1. Catchment Condition Report 2007, Victorian Catchment Management Council, 2007.

2. Global Environment Outlook: Environment for Development (GEO-4), UNEP, October 2007.

3. Environmental Sustainability Issues Analysis for Victoria, CSIRO, 2004.

4. Australian Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment 2002, National Land and Water Resources Audit, 2002.

5. Nature Conservation Review Victoria 2001, VNPA, Trail and Porter, 2001.

6. The Health of our Catchments: A Victorian Report Card, Victorian Catchment Council, 2002.

Victoria Naturally Alliance Program Overview

What the science tells us The best available science tells us that our natural environment is in serious trouble: • About 70% of Victoria has been cleared, making us the most cleared state in Australia3.

• Victoria’s landscapes are the most stressed in the country4.

• 44% of plants and 30% of our native animals are either extinct or threatened3.

• 78% of our bushland types (Ecological Vegetation Classes) are threatened5.

• 75% of our waterways are degraded and 35% of our wetlands have been totally lost6.

Economic value As well as being incredibly valuable in its own right biodiversity is also of huge importance to our standard of living. In terms of ecosystem services alone it is worth an estimated $1327 billion a year6 to the Australian economy.

Our lives and future prosperity depend on our natural environment. To ensure our future, it is vital Victorians work together to protect existing habitat and undertake very large-scale habitat restoration across the state.

Past cattle and sheep grazing has taken a toll on Ned’s Corner Station, at Mildura. Trust for Nature purchased the property for conservation in 2002 and stopped grazing. The site is now regenerating with some remarkable results.

Photo: Mark Schapper for Trust for Nature

State Government White Paper The Victorian Government has responded to our concerns by launching a Land and Biodiversity White Paper inquiry.

Following the release of a Green Paper, the final White Paper is expected in 2009. This is a once in a generation opportunity to address the dire situation facing Victoria’s biodiversity.

Victoria is home to an amazing variety of life, landscapes and seascapes. No other area of similar size in Australia supports such natural diversity, from the alps to the forests,woodlands to coastal environments, Victoria has a unique natural heritage, a natural heritage too precious to lose.

too precious to lose

Victoria Naturally Alliance Program Overview

Victoria’s original bushland

Broad Vegetation Types (Estimated Coverage Pre-1750) - DCE map.

Victoria used to be rich in habitat including grasslands that stretched all the way from what’s now the edge of Melbourne to the South Australian border.

Grasslands

Plains Grassy Woodland

Mallee

Broad Vegetation Types (Coverage in 1987) - DCE Map.

Victoria Naturally Alliance Program Overview

Wimmera Mallee Woodland

Box Ironbark Forest

What’s left

But in just 170 years Victoria has lost much of its original native bushland. Our grasslands have all but vanished and our Box Ironbark Forests, the honeypot for many of our birds in winter, have been devastated.

Victoria’s biodiversity crisis – meeting the challenge The Victoria Naturally Alliance proposes the following as essential components of a comprehensive and strategic approach to the conservation of Victoria’s biodiversity: • A vision, goals, targets and timelines that articulate biodiversity outcomes.

• Maintenance and restoration of ecological processes.

• Avoiding clearing of native vegetation.

• A resilient, comprehensive conservation reserve system.

• Very large-scale restoration programs.

• Private land conservation programs.

• Marine-coastal-land links.

• Threatened species and communities protection and recovery.

• Tackling threatening processes (including invasive species) and drivers of loss.

• A scientific basis for actions, targets and monitoring.

• Meaningful involvement of Traditional Owners.

• Major increase in community awareness and engagement.

• Institutions and a regulatory framework that is aligned with the vision.

• Systematic, long-term biodiversity monitoring and adaptive management.

• Research and extension.

• Sufficient resources to deliver the vision.

Reconnecting nature Although Victoria’s national parks are often seen as the first line of defence for nature conservation, on their own they aren’t going to be enough to protect our native plants and animals from the multiple threats of habitat fragmentation, soil erosion, poor river health, invasive species and now climate change.

We need to take a big-picture approach, one that takes into account the health of ecosystems not just in national parks but also on other public land such as roadsides and cemeteries, as well as on

private land. One way to do this is through “biolinks”, large-scale habitat restoration projects that reconnect native vegetation across all landscapes, linking up national parks and giving species that have for years been hemmed in by cleared land room to move.

Biolinks could also play a crucial role in helping plants and animals cope with the effects of climate change by allowing them to migrate through the landscape as they try to escape increasing temperatures.

Indicative map of possible biolinks in Victoria. Based on DCE map, 1992, and Brereton et al (1995).

Large-scale biolinks are becoming a reality in south-western WA and are underway in western Victoria through Habitat

141. Driven by Greening Australia Habitat 141 aims to link bushlands from the southern ocean to north of the Murray River.

Under global warming many of Victoria’s native plants and animals will be forced to flee south and to higher ground, but with 70% of the state cleared of native vegetation many will be locked into climate change jails. We need to reconnect the state and give species room to move.

room to move

Victoria Naturally Alliance Program Overview

Victoria Naturally Alliance Program Overview

Our program themes The Victoria Naturally Alliance’s program is built around the following four themes:

Large-scale nature conservation To reverse the biodiversity crisis, conservation efforts need to be carried out on much larger scales, delivering biodiversity protection and restoration and boosting regional development and community wellbeing.

Leadership The Victoria Naturally Alliance is calling for public, private and community collaboration to provide the leadership required to deliver the vision of a Victoria with flourishing biodiversity, healthy ecosystems and resilient ecological processes.

Active community We will work to ensure Victorians are more aware of the biodiversity crisis, what they can do to reverse it and help the Victorian Government keep its promise to maintain and restore our natural environment.

Knowledge and science Solutions need to be underpinned by the best available science, systematic long-term monitoring and adaptive management.

Project Hindmarsh, a pioneering landscape restoration project near Nhill that has successfully linked Victoria’s Big and Little deserts, should be used as a springboard for much larger landscape restoration projects across the state. Photo: David Fletcher

Community-based landscape restoration schemes such as the decade old Project Hindmarsh show just what a small group of people with a big vision can achieve. We need to take that vision and roll it out across the state, encouraging Victorians everywhere to ‘get active for nature’.

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Victoria Naturally Alliance Program Overview

Large-scale nature conservation Objectives • The White Paper delivers plans for very large-scale habitat restoration across Victoria.

• The Victorian component of the Habitat 141 landscape restoration program is fully scoped, funded and operational with significant State Government support, funding from a range of sources and broad stakeholder engagement.

• At least one additional very large-scale biolink program scoped, funded and operational with significant State Government support and funding from a range of sources and broad stakeholder engagement.

• The Victorian Government commits to and delivers: – Protecting and restoring ecological processes and prioritises key threats to biodiversity for action.

– Significantly increased resources for monitoring, control and management of invasive species across tenures.

– Significant reduction in native vegetation loss and a transparent, accountable, ecologically-based offsetting system with active compliance measures.

– Effective ecological management of Victoria’s national parks and reserves and other public land.

– Marine and terrestrial production systems that are ecologically sustainable.

– Targets, actions and timelines to im-

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prove water quality and stream condition scores.

• Governments and private land conservation initiatives deliver additional marine and terrestrial conservation reserves to achieve a representative system.

• The Victorian and Commonwealth governments deliver and implement environmental flow regimes that reconnect rivers to their floodplains and estuaries.

Key activities • Demonstrate the economic case, and identify policy barriers, enablers and opportunities for large-scale habitat restoration using case studies such as Habitat 141 in western Victoria and Gondwana Link in Western Australia.

• Investigate the role of ecological processes in maintaining biodiversity and the policy priorities for maintaining and restoring ecological processes.

Key performance measures • The White Paper includes plans for very large-scale revegetation of “biolinks” across Victoria.

• The Victorian component of Habitat 141 is fully scoped, funded, operational and at least one additional very large-scale restoration project underway.

Leadership Objectives • The Victorian Government, through its Land and Biodiversity White Paper, reviews the institutional framework for biodiversity protection, enhancement and restoration – including assessment of barriers and enablers – and develops and implements a reform program.

• Adequate resourcing is delivered for White Paper recommendations and programs.

• The Victoria Naturally Alliance establishes long-term partnerships and joint position statements with key stakeholders.

Key activities • Work with partners to review the institutional framework and make recommendations for reform.

• Develop the case for increased resourcing, and contribute to State Government budget development.

• Build support for our vision and develop partnerships and joint position statements with key stakeholders.

Ron Dodds, south west regional manager for Greening Australia (Vic), has been a key player in Project Hindmarsh and is now working on Habitat 141, an audacious plan to link national parks all the way from Victoria’s Murray-Sunset to the Lower Glenelg National Park in the state’s southwest corner.

Photo: David Fletcher

Key performance measures • The White Paper includes a vision, targets and timelines for biodiversity protection and restoration with effective institutional/policy settings and programs that are adequately resourced to deliver the vision.

• Key partnerships are established with community, government and other stakeholders.

In just 170 years Victoria has lost much of its original native vegetation. Our grasslands have all but vanished and our Box Ironbark Forests, the honeypot for many of our birds in winter, have been devastated. It’s time to give nature a chance.

time to give nature a chance

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Active community Objectives • The Victoria Naturally Alliance campaign significantly raises awareness of Victoria’s biodiversity crisis among target audiences, with those audiences undertaking actions to support our vision.

• The Victorian Government commits to and develops a comprehensive biodiversity education/awareness program for schools, landholders and the general community.

Key activities • Integrate our messages in member groups’ public materials.

• Build networks and develop a range of communication tools including a website, regular ebulletin, publications, media coverage and metropolitan and regional events.

• Engage with rural Victoria through a ‘Regional Voices’ program.

• Encourage Victorians to ‘get active for nature’ through a range of on-ground activities and engagement with the decision-making process.

Key performance measures • The Victorian community is active and engaged on biodiversity issues.

• A significant number of submissions made

From planting weekends to helping out with species monitoring there are many ways Victorians can ‘get active for nature’.

Photo: Brett Wheaton

to the Green Paper from across Victoria.

• Our ebulletin list increases by at least 30 subscribers a month.

• Regular coverage in regional and metropolitan media.

1 SMART - specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic and time-based.

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Knowledge and science Objectives The White Paper delivers SMART1 biodiversity and land health targets and timelines with integrated long-term monitoring linked to adaptive management.

• The White Paper process delivers longterm, scientifically-based habitat restoration targets for all Ecological Vegetation Classes (EVCs) in Victoria.

• Very large-scale habitat restoration programs identified and planned based on current ecological knowledge, using an ecological processes framework.

• The White Paper undertakes comprehensive mapping and modelling of effects of climate change on land and biodiversity values.

• The Victorian Government delivers knowledge brokering services, and centres for biodiversity research and information, including a virtual resource/knowledge centre for vegetation restoration.

Key activities • Demonstrate the scientific basis of Victoria’s biodiversity crisis and climate change impacts, including targets for biodiversity conservation and restoration

Habitat restoration projects in regional Victoria are showing that it is possible to bring back the Grey-Crowned Babbler, which though once common throughout the state is now listed as a Photo: Dean Ingwersen threatened species.

and the need for additional resourcing of research and monitoring capacity.

• Develop and disseminate an expert statement on the role of ecological processes in maintaining biodiversity in Victoria.

Key performance measures • Increased funding for research, data collection, monitoring, data management and knowledge brokering.

“Without habitat, there is no wildlife. It’s that simple.”

- Wildlife Habitat Canada

habitat

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The alliance, a shared vision Victorian National Parks Association leads the alliance. It is Victoria’s leading nature conservation organisation and plays a key role in community education and policy development as well as contributing significantly to on-ground projects. The Victoria Naturally Alliance PANTONE project team, based at the VNPA, co-ordinates the alliance and drives383 U PANTONE 462 U strategic policy development and communications.

Australian Conservation Foundation, with its large national membership base and strong links with governments, business and community groups is a powerful player nationally. In relation to the Victoria Naturally Alliance, ACF takes a leading role driving policy outcomes on land stewardship, river health and marine conservation.

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Bush Heritage Australia is a visionary national organisation that purchases/acquires land of high conservation value to protect Australia’s unique biodiversity. It currently owns and manages 29 reserves throughout Australia covering 720,482 hectares. Within the alliance, it plays a leading role in private land conservation issues and policy advice.

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Environment Victoria is the peak non-government, not-for-profit environment organisation in Victoria.

Environment Victoria supports 150 member organisations, representing thousands of Victorians, many of whom are specifically concerned about habitat conservation and restoration.

Within the alliance it leads on river health issues and provides advice on native vegetation issues.

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Greening Australia is the largest not-for-profit environmental organisation in Australia and is committed to creating practical solutions to Australia’s environmental problems. Managing world-class environmental projects of all scales, Greening Australia is also actively involved in research and development of restoration technologies. It is a major partner in Habitat 141 and provides technical and policy advice to the Victoria Naturally Alliance.

Invasive Species Council is the first group in the world created solely to campaign for effective policy and actions against invasive species. It takes the lead on invasive species issues within the alliance and provides technical and policy advice.

The Wilderness Society, with its large national membership base and active “Wilderness Action Groups�, is a force for nature conservation nationally. Its WildCountry program provides the Victoria Naturally Alliance with a vision for large-scale conservation and scientific expertise via the WildCountry Science Council. TWS also contributes significant policy advice and community education capacity to the alliance.

Trust for Nature is the leader in private land conservation in Australia. Trust for Nature has protected more than 70,000 hectares of Victorian bushland through conservation covenants, a revolving fund and land purchase and management.

It works closely with landholders to develop visionary yet practical programs that maximise the impact of private land conservation to protect and improve biodiversity across the state. Within the alliance Trust for Nature plays a leading role in private land conservation policy and project advice.

Current global biodiversity changes are the fastest in human history. Species are becoming extinct a hundred times faster than the rate shown in the fossil record, over 30 per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are threatened. Now is the time to act.

time to act

Victoria Naturally Alliance Program Overview 1

Biodiversity provides us with not only clean air and water but many other ecosystem services we take for granted, including pest control and pollination. So it’s in everyone’s interest – farmers, business, mums and dads – that we look after it. Our future depends on it.

our future depends on it