Australian project tests way to describe ecological character

(posted to the Ramsar Forum, 28 October 2002)

Dear friends and colleagues,

Forum members may be interested in a recently completed project by a team of scientists in Australia who set out to design a datasheet to standardise the collection of data for benchmarking the ecological character of Ramsar sites across the country. The drivers for this project were a desire to have this fundamental descriptor information gathered systematically to allow early warning of change and also to establish baselines for long-term monitoring and determining impacts. Australia has national legislation that declares all Ramsar sites as being places of 'national environmental significance' and places a responsibility upon the Federal Environment Minister to ensure that they are not adversely impacted by actions either within or external to the site. The so-called Ecological Character Datasheet (ECD) developed by the project attempts to provide for a comprehensive description of the "biological, physical, and chemical components of the wetland ecosystem, and their interactions" (as per the Ramsar Convention's formal definition of 'ecological character'). At first glance the proposed ECD may seem intimidating - the authors stress, however, that for most sites a subset of the attributes proposed will be all that is needed in order to monitor ecological character.

Note - the Ecological Character Datasheet designed by this project has not been adopted by Australia at this stage. It is a model that will be tested over coming months in collaboration with the State/Territory (provincial) governments.

Below you will find the Executive Summary from the project report. I have asked Ramsar's Web master to make the ECD itself available through the Web site.

Bill Phillips

'Pilot testing' an approach for describing the ecological character of Australia's Ramsar sites

MainStream Environmental Consulting Pty Ltd

Director: Dr Bill Phillips

in association with:

Dr George Begg and Dr Max Finlayson, Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist
Mr Brett Lane and Mr Mark Bezuijen, Brett Lane and Associates Pty Ltd
Ms Rhonda Butcher, Monash University
Dr George Lukacs, James Cook University

July 2002

Report prepared for Environment Australia under the National Wetlands Programme of the Natural Heritage Trust

Executive Summary

Australia, as a Contracting Party to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, has designated to date 57 Wetlands of International Importance. The act of designating a wetland as a Ramsar site carries with it certain obligations, including to manage the site to retain its 'ecological character' and to have procedures in place to detect if any threatening process are likely to or have already altered the 'ecological character'. Therefore, describing the 'ecological character' of a Ramsar site is a fundamental management tool for Parties which should form the baseline or benchmark for management planning and action, including site monitoring to detect negative impacts.

Domestically, the Commonwealth Government has introduced legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act), which provides a legal framework for seeing that the 'ecological character' of all Australian Ramsar sites is retained. The EPBC Act establishes a Commonwealth process for the referral, and possible assessment of proposed actions that may have a significant impact on matters of national environmental significance, which includes Ramsar sites. The EPBC Act also requires that the Commonwealth "use its best endeavours to ensure a plan for managing the wetland in a way that is not inconsistent with Australia's obligations under the Ramsar Convention or the Australian Ramsar management principles is prepared and implemented in cooperation with the State and Territory."

In response to these obligations, and the associated legislation, this project was undertaken to 'pilot test' an approach for preparing 'ecological character' descriptions for Australia's Ramsar sites. A datasheet was designed and then improved through application for eight of Australia's Ramsar sites. The sites in question were as follows: Kakadu National Park (Northern Territory), Lake Toolibin (Western Australia), Bowling Green Bay (Queensland) Narran Lakes (New South Wales), Ginnini Flats (ACT), Bool and Hacks Lagoon (South Australia), Barmah Forest (Victoria) and Moulting Lagoon (Tasmania).

The project team developed a draft datasheet for assembling site information, which covered a range of biotic and abiotic parameters thought to be of direct relevance for gaining a better understanding of the "biological, physical, and chemical components of the wetland ecosystem, and their interactions" (as per the Ramsar Convention's formal definition of 'ecological character') . This goes on to say: "which maintain the wetland and its products, functions, and attributes", but it was beyond the scope of this project to consider the issue of wetland products and functions as well as heritage and cultural values which are defined as part of "attributes". The Ramsar Convention's 8th Conference in November 2002 will examine and may provide a basis for developing guidance to allow this aspect of 'ecological character' to be considered subsequently.

For each of the chosen sites, desktop data reviews were undertaken to populate, and in the process help fine tune the datasheet. The proforma presented in the report, the so-called Ecological Character Datasheet (ECD), provides a comprehensive and uniform framework for 'ecological character' data to be assembled. It also allows current information gaps to be identified.

The ECD, as proposed in the report, is designed to be flexible and to accommodate, on a site-by-site basis, the differing situations and management needs. It can be used as a 'rolls royce' model whereby all or most parameters are measured and monitored, or it can be equally useful as the cut-down, 'economy model' that focuses upon using an appropriate sub-set of parameters that are considered most relevant to the management aspirations for the site or the threats it may be facing.

The report concludes that application of the proposed ECD should also assist those making determinations with respect to referrals under the EPBC Act and help guide and form the basis for determining management prescriptions for Ramsar sites, in accordance with the EPBC Act's Australian Ramsar Management Principles. It should also help to identify those attributes of greatest value for establishing early warning systems within overall monitoring frameworks for Wetlands of International Importance.

It is acknowledged that in order to use the ECD for all 57 Ramsar sites that Australia has at present will be an exercise that requires additional resources. It is estimated, based on the experience of this project, that in order to access and assemble the relevant published and grey literature for a site will require between 10 and 15 days. Such an investment also requires consideration to be given to ongoing monitoring commitments at each site. The Ramsar Convention expects ongoing monitoring of 'ecological character' (see Article 3.2) and the EPBC Act has created a stronger imperative for Australia to undertake such a process of describing 'ecological character' and then monitoring to see that it is retained for each site.

The primary recommendation contained in the report urges Environment Australia, in collaboration with the relevant State and Territory agencies, to identify the resources to use the ECD for all of Australia's current and future Ramsar sites. It is acknowledged that the timeframe for completing this task will clearly be resource-dependent, and the report suggests a target of 5 years for completion, with a review phase after the draft ECDs this report has prepared, and those for around another 8-10 priority sites, are assembled.

The report also recommends the development of a manual to accompany the ECD to encourage consistency of application across the country, and for it to be packaged in a user-friendly database format with built-in explanatory notes to help the compilers. As the ECDs are prepared they will offer the opportunity to cross-check against the management plan for the respective sites, where these exist, to confirm that the actions set down therein are appropriate, and that monitoring approaches are also adequate.

Recognising that site managers, and management plans for these areas, need to take account of threatening processes, it is recommended that Environment Australia fund the development of a series of monitoring frameworks based on likely risk factors for Australia's Ramsar sites, such as eutrophication, altered hydrology, environmental weeds, and rising saline groundwater.

The report notes that Australia has the opportunity through this project to adopt an international leadership role for the Ramsar Convention in this area of describing 'ecological character'. Environment Australia are urged to support research into the issue of how to document the key interactions and functional relationships between abiotic and biotic factors and the somewhat problematical issue of describing the "products, functions, and attributes" element of the Ramsar definition of 'ecological character'. It is inevitable that the Convention will need to consider these matters and Australia could be proactive in taking this matter forward for the international community, and also for national application.

Recognising that this project has yielded findings which are expected to be of great interest to other Contracting Parties of the Ramsar Convention, it is recommended that the report be provided by Environment Australia to the Scientific and Technical Review Panel of the Convention, and made available at Ramsar's 8th Conference of the Contracting Parties in Spain in November 2002 for the information of other Parties.

ECOLOGICAL CHARACTER DATASHEET: Proforma to assist with describing the ecological character of a Wetland of International Importance (Word document)

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