Parks - IUCN

Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure 1. 1. 1. 1. 1.
South coast region
of Western Australia.
PARKS VOL 9 NO 3 • OCTOBER 1999
areas, and predation of wildlife
generally.
At the landscape level, four major
approaches have evolved in order to
better ‘protect’ nature conservation values
and biodiversity:
❚ establishment and management of
‘protected area systems’ usually at a state
or national level;
❚ retaining or developing buffer zones
around protected areas in order to reduce
the rate of decline in natural values
caused by edge effects, a typical approach
used in biosphere reserves (Robertson
Vernhes, 1993);
❚ improved connectivity between
protected areas or fragments through
the establishment of continuous
corridors or ‘stepping stone’ linkages
(Bennett, 1997, 1998);
❚ encouragement of additional protection for biodiversity and wildlife habitat at
a local level in the remainder of the landscape, for example through landowner
incentives, town planning schemes, catchment-based programmes and, in
Australia, ‘Bushcare’ programmes.
These four approaches all have nature conservation value in their own right,
but in combination will be particularly powerful because they create a total
landscape approach and, equally important, because they involve all sectors of
the local and regional community.
The Western Australia South Coast Macro Corridor
Project
The South Coast Macro Corridor Project is partially funded by the Australian
Commonwealth Natural Heritage Trust Bushcare programme, and is implemented
through the Western Australia Department of Conservation and Land Management
(CALM). The project evolved from an earlier review of the protected area system in
the South Coast Region of Western Australia (Figure 1; CALM, 1991). One of the
objectives of that review was to assess remnant vegetation and develop
recommendations for the establishment of major ‘corridor’ reserves as links or
conduits to improve habitat connectivity and the movement of fauna between parks
and reserves (Watson, 1997). An assessment of river foreshore corridors between the
towns of Albany and Esperance found high potential for their establishment as
conservation reserves (Watson, 1991; Leighton and Watson, 1992; Watson, 1997). The
South Coast Bioregional Initiative or Macro Corridor Project is further developing the
potential for an integrated reserve system, and inclusion of strategic remnant
vegetation across the entire South Coast Region of Western Australia (Figure 2).
The project objectives are to:
❚ establish, consolidate, and maintain a major bioregional ‘macro-corridor’ of native
vegetation stretching some 700 km from Israelite Bay to the town of Denmark along
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