Status of Aquatic Ecosystem Protection

A detailed review of the current level of protection afforded to Aquatic Ecosystems by SKM in 2007 found that although approaches to the identification and categorisation of Aquatic Ecosystems varies between jurisdictions, they do contain some broad similarities. In this respect, the differences are influenced by the diversity of environments and institutional and implementation arrangements including policy and management objectives (e.g. protection, restoration or rehabilitation), institutional and delivery arrangements (e.g. regional or state) and differing overarching goals e.g. conservation or sustainable use. Key areas where similarities across jurisdictions occur include:

Federal legislation – i.e. protection afforded by the EPBC Act
Existing identification and categorisation frameworks with national application e.g. Ramsar and the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (DIWA) frameworks – although actual implementation may differ across jurisdictions
Tiered priorities (i.e. national/state/regional) and overarching principles and guidelines for conservation, protection and management of national resource assets – e.g. protect assets of high value and good condition, rehabilitate and restore assets with high value and moderate condition, and being prepared to not invest in low value or poor condition assets
Broad ecological criteria for assessing value and condition
Wide recognition of the key implementation role of regional NRM organisations in identifying, categorising and managing HCVAE’s

Additional information on the 2007 SKM report on existing policy, planning and legislative frameworks to identify, classify and manage Aquatic Ecosystems across Australia is available here SKM 2007 (1.4 MBytes)

A summary comparison of jurisdictional frameworks / approaches for identifying, classifying and managing / protecting aquatic ecosystems taken from the above report is also available. Comparative summary (0.5 MBytes)