DRAFT Tuart Conservation and Management Strategy

APPENDIX 6.6
HISTORY OF CONSERVATION INITIATIVES ON THE SWAN COASTAL
PLAIN
Appendix 6.1 shows that 9,483 hectares of tuart woodlands (31.3% of total remnant area) are
vested in the Conservation Commission of Western Australia and managed by CALM. Of this
amount 6,161 hectares (20.3% of total area) occurs in secured conservation reserves with the
remainder occurring in State forest. A further 904 hectares (3.0% of total area) of tuart
woodlands occur on unallocated Crown land and unmanaged reserves and are also managed
by CALM.
The Forest Management Plan 2004 – 2013 (Conservation Commission 2004) has addressed,
to the extent possible, the task of improving the conservation reserve system on the Swan
Coastal Plain. When fully implemented the area of tuart woodlands in formal reserves (Map 1)
will increase from 6,160 hectares to 8,690 hectares (28.7% of the total area 29 ). The ability to
further improve the representation of tuart in the formal conservation reserves through this
mechanism is now limited as remaining tuart woodlands occur mainly on private land (19,078
hectares or 63% of total area) and outside the existing or proposed reserve system.
Establishing a comprehensive, representative and adequate reserve system on the Swan
Coastal Plain has been addressed, in addition to CALM regional planning processes, through
a number of programs and planning instruments. The Environmental Protection Authority
initially identified suitable areas for reservation through the Conservation Through Reserves
Committee Reports for System 1,2,3 and 5 (Environmental Protection Authority 1976) and
System 6 (Department of Conservation and Environment 1983).
The Environmental Protection Authority (1993) began updating the ‘system reports’ for the
Swan Coastal Plain. By 1996 the reserves program was ‘exhausted’ and re-focused again on
the Perth Metropolitan Region. This resulted in Bush Forever (Map 1) which seeks to
establish a conservation reserve system on the Swan Coastal Plain portion of the Perth
Metropolitan Region that is, as far as is achievable, comprehensive adequate and
representative (Western Government of Western Australia 2000).
Bush Forever is a 10-year plan that seeks representation of at least 10 per cent of each of 26
vegetation complexes (Heddle et al. 1980) that occur within the Swan Coastal Plain portion of
Perth metropolitan region. A number of criteria (eg. areas containing rare or threatened
communities or species) have been used to select 287 Bush Forever sites to meet this aim.
This equates to 51,200 hectares or almost 18 per cent of the ‘metropolitan region’. Protection
of identified areas is being sought through a range of options from purchase and reservation
to negotiated planning solutions. Within metropolitan Bush Forever sites, 2,153 hectares of
tuart woodlands - occurring outside existing and proposed additions to the CALM managed
estate - is proposed for conservation and protection through these mechanisms.
29 Additions are mostly State forest and IUCN Reserve categories I-IV
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