Development and application of procedures to identify and conserve threatened ecological communities in the South-west Botanical Province of Western Australia

Abstract

A two year project was conducted to: (i) produce definitions, criteria and procedures for identifying threatened ecological communities (TECs) and assigning them to categories that define conservation status; (ii) develop a minimum data set for allocating TECs to one of these categories; (iii) establish a database and enter on it TECs, and associated data, of the South-west Botanical Province of Western Australia; and (iv) assess each community and make recommendations for actions to conserve them. The procedures described allow assessment of whether a particular biological assemblage can be described as an ecological community, and whether it meets the definitions and criteria for a TEC. ''Threatened'' (with destruction) includes ''totally destroyed", "critically endangered (CRl", "endangered (EN)" and ''vulnerable (VU)". Ecological communities that do not meet the criteria as ''threatened'' may be classified "data deficient" if there is insufficient information to assign a category, or "lower risk" if the community is not under significant threat. Other assemblages are termed "not evaluated". The terminology, categories and criteria are adapted from those recommended for threatened species by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Thirty-eight ecological communities, including those based on assemblages of terrestrial and aquatic plants, cave and mound-spring invertebrates, and structure-forming microbes were entered on the database. Of these, 16 were assessed as CR, seven as EN, ten as VU and five as data deficient. The project established methods that are applicable to data on a broad range of community types at a broad range of scales. It also initiated many recovery actions including preparation of interim recovery plans, land acquisition, fencing, weed control and public liaison. Such actions are intended to cause allocation of communities to a lower category of threat when reevaluated against the criteria.

The interpretation, assessment and conservation of ecological communities

“…Other methods (e.g. English & Blyth 1999;State of Queensland 1999;Benson 2006) exhibit a similar tendency, insofar as their thresholds are markedly more stringent than those in species assessment criteria adopted by IUCN (2001). Only NatureServe (Faber-Langendoen et al 2007) and State of NSW (2005) employ identical thresholds for communities and species.…”

Towards consistency, rigour and compatibility of risk assessments for ecosystems and ecological communities

“…It also arose from a requirement to assess any biotic assemblage, not just those defined by vegetation types (e.g. English & Blyth ). Although the lack of a classification framework makes a comprehensive and consistent assessment of the jurisdiction more difficult, it allows ecosystems to be assessed at a range of thematic scales and irrespective of whether they are recognized within vegetation classification frameworks.…”