Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines - July 2010

• Taxa that meet IUCN 16 criteria for any category of threatened conservation status
whether or not yet listed under provisions of legislation in any jurisdiction in which the
site is located.
• Taxa listed under provisions of relevant legislation that provide protection for particular
categories of taxa whether threatened or not (for example species listed under
provisions of the EPBC Act that provide specific protection for international migratory
and marine fauna and encompass national obligations under international
agreements).
• Taxa naturally occurring at low densities because of their ecological function high in
the trophic order. This will primarily relate to taxa like raptors that are top-order
predators.
• Taxa that have special cultural significance.
• Any other taxa that relevant authorities require to be considered for a particular site
such as species not included in the categories above but for which the site is
especially significant.
Advice to assist the determination of key species relevant to the site should be sought from
the relevant authorities at the earliest possible stage of the assessment process.
Consideration may be required of the fact that some iconic species that are not covered
by categories listed above may rate highly in public perceptions and it thus may be
prudent to include such species in assessments of birds and bats.
Determining site usage
Scoping of the impact assessment process must be informed by taking account of known
or potential use of the site by birds and bats. This should be determined from:
• Known use of the site by bird and bat taxa based on pre-existing confirmed records.
• Inferred or potential use by the taxon based on geographic range and presence of
suitable habitat at the site or presence of known or suitable habitat distributed such
that the taxon is likely to fly through the site. These may include important and limited
breeding, roosting or feeding sites or defined migratory pathways.
• Pilot investigations of the site.
Known or likely use of a site will be determined from preliminary investigations. These
include:
• Scrutiny of relevant fauna databases for a prescribed search area, in particular
databases managed by government agencies responsible for fauna and professional
organisations, such as Birds Australia.
• Information canvassed from relevant wildlife agencies.
• Information canvassed from local sources. Consultation with the local community,
especially with naturalist and bird observer groups should be actively undertaken for
this purpose. Speleological societies may have information about cave-dwelling bats.
Information should also be sought from relevant landowners.
• Care must be taken to evaluate pre-existing data and associated meta-data about
the area as many datasets do not have a systematic or coordinated collection
protocol. For example, historical information about species of shorebirds may have
been collected incidental to annual pre-duck shooting season investigations of
waterfowl. This may be the only body of information about presence or numbers of
shorebirds in a local area, but is unlikely to be representative of their annual use of the
16 The International Union for Conservation of Nature, Species Survival Commission (IUCN 2001)
provides standard criteria for categories of threat status applicable to all species of fauna and
flora.
Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines – 2 July 2010 Page 121