ACT Nature Conservation Strategy 2013–23.

The Nature Conservation Strategy 2013-2023 is a document for all land management, planning, business, and community sectors in the ACT to guide a coordinated and integrated approach to nature conservation. The Strategy set the basis to guide future management of the Territory’s open spaces, rural areas, urban areas, riverine corridors and nature reserves, and drive investment of funding and resources.
The Strategy has adopted a “landscape approach” and identified four focal landscapes (rural, urban, water catchment and river corridor landscape) with specific management and restoration objectives. Regarding urban landscape the objective is to enhance a range of ecosystems that are compatible with urban development. Rural landscape’ objective is to strengthen connectivity between reserves and native vegetation remnants across tenures and restore ecosystem services (e.g. drinking water, habitat for native species and primary production) as the basis of large, resilient lowland areas that can be agriculturally productive. It also aims at retaining ‘lifestyle values’ of rural leases and biodiversity. Water catchment landscape’ objective is primarily focused on restoring the area’s ability to provide both clean water and native habitat. On the other side, River corridor landscape’ objective is to maintain water quality and in-stream flows, and protect and restore riparian vegetation buffering rivers and streams.
The Strategic priorities are 5: 1) Enhance habitat connectivity and ecosystem function; 2) Manage threats to biodiversity; 3) Protect species and ecological communities; 4) Enhance biodiversity value of urban areas; 5) Strengthen community engagement.
Actions under Strategy 1 (Enhance habitat connectivity and ecosystem function) form a key approach to enhance landscape resilience and link together native vegetation at various scales, buffer existing habitat patches, link terrestrial and riverine systems, and conserve altitudinal gradients to allow species to shift their ranges in response to a changing climate. The identified actions are: develop a baseline information on landscape function; undertake a fine scale planning for habitat connectivity to identify local priority areas and strategic investment opportunities; enhance regional connectivity through specific programms; assess conservation investment opportunities across public and privately managed lands in the ACT and mobilize resources.
Strategy 2 (Manage threats to biodiversity), lays down actions that help improve landscape function and align with connectivity conservation and landscape priorities under Strategy 1. Actions include: implementing ACT Weed Strategy (2009–19) and Pest Animal Management Strategy (2012–22); improving management of total grazing pressure on ecosystem function in reserve; establish and implement ecologically appropriate fire regimes; implement improved catchment management with the aim of maintaining or improving the condition of aquatic ecosystems under a changing climate; and develop a migratory species action plan and as ACT soil strategy.
Strategy 3 (Protect species and ecological communities) institutes actions that are designed to protect species and ecosystems by increasing landscape resilience. These include: actions aimed at managing the protected area estate; development, implementation and review of action plans for threatened species and communities; increase efforts to better manage species at risk by implementing management actions that maintain and improve habitat condition and reduce threats in key areas; identify biodiversity refugia under drought and climate change; monitor five priority ecosystems most vulnerable to threats; implement captive animal breeding and translocation programs; propagate and translocate threatened plants; Establish seed banks and seed orchards.
Strategy 4 (Enhance biodiversity value of urban areas)’ approach draws strongly upon the community (both residents and ‘community scientists’) to lead many of the monitoring and restoration initiatives around Canberra. Initiatives include: manage impacts of urbanization on biodiversity; develop policies to improve biodiversity outcomes from landscaping of urban open spaces; enhance connectivity of native habitat om urban areas by improving street plantings and increasing ‘nativeness’ and heterogeneity; manage properly the urban/bush interface as activity on that edge is critical for managing the impacts on natural areas from domestic animals, invasive plants, waste dumping, recreational use and fire; support land and park care groups; manage and enhance ‘green’ assets and infrastructure.
Strategy 5 (Strengthen community engagement) has strong focus on engaging youth and Indigenous people in natural resource management, and harnessing community capacities through a citizen science program. Actions follow: support greater community involvement through volunteering; enhance and promote use of citizen science; deliver targeted community education campaigns on priority issues; build Indigenous engagement in the management of natural resource; encourage the involvement of youth in nature conservation; support appropriate recreational and tourism use of natural areas; enhance key partnerships across government, community and the private sector.
The Strategy, focusing on rural landscape as one of the focal landscapes for nature conservation, promotes sustainability in the agricultural production throughout the document and by several strategic actions (e.g. improving management of total grazing pressure on ecosystem function in reserve, assess conservation investment opportunities across public and privately managed lands in the ACT, among others).
The Act also, through Strategy 5, with the aim of strengthening community engagement promotes a more inclusive agricultural system through involvement in the landscape conservation process of rural landholders on whose properties significant remnants of native vegetation still exist.
Increase of resilience of landscapes (rural included) and protection of species and ecosystems from threats (such as fire, climate change, droughts) are managed under Strategy 2 and Strategy 3.