coastal and marine natural values of the kimberley - wwf - Australia

12. Coastal and Marine Natural Values of the Kimberley1.INTRODUCTIONAND CONTEXT2Conference of Parties 5, Decision V/6, Nairobi,15 - 26 May 2000, sA3: Ecosystem means adynamic complex of plant, animal and microorganismcommunities and their non-livingenvironment interacting as a functional unit. Thisdefi nition does not specify any particular spatial unitor scale, in contrast to the Convention defi nitionof “habitat”. Thus, the term “ecosystem” does not,necessarily, correspond to the terms “biome” or“ecological zone”, but can refer to any functioningunit at any scale. Indeed, the scale of analysis andaction should be determined by the problem beingaddressed. It could, for example, be a grain of soil,a pond, a forest, a biome or the entire biosphere.3Convention on Biological Diversity. GlobalOutLook 1. November 2001.1.1 SCOPE OF REPORTThis report aims to review the coastaland marine biodiversity of the westand north-west Kimberley, includingoffshore marine areas, from south ofBroome to Cape Londonderry. Thestudy area comprises two terrestrialbioregions (DEW, 2007a) and sevenmarine bioregions (Commonwealth ofAustralia, 2006) (Table 1). Five of thesemarine bioregions are coastal and two areoffshore (Figure 1). The whole region isbroadly referred to in this report as“the Kimberley”.The goal of this report is to provide anintroduction to natural ecological valuesof the Kimberley and is intended toinform discussions about strategies forthe sustainable development of northernAustralia. In particular this report istargeted at discussions around currentand future infrastructure applications toservice the developement of the BrowseBasin gas reserves (Figure 3).1.2 REPORT STRUCTURESections 2 and 3 provide an overview ofthe Kimberley marine and coastal naturalenvironments, including their importancein a regional, national and internationalcontext, and highlights areas that aredesignated under international or nationalprotected area mechanisms. In section 4species that best characterise the marineand coastal environment are introduced,including those that are consideredthreatened. The purpose of this reporthowever, is not to provide an exhaustiveand comprehensive overview of everyspecies or repeat the detail coveredin other key policy documents andbiodiversity inventories. For more detail,readers are referred to Graham, 2002aand Mawson, 2007 and to the Departmentof Conservation and Land Management’sThreatened Ecological Community(TEC) Database and the Commonwealthgovernment’s Protected MattersSearch Tool.A brief overview of key ecosystemdrivers in section 5 introduces thestructure of the environment in whichthese species (including some commonspecies) occur and describes howseasonal and spatial patterns create avery patchy and predictable ecology,with areas of relatively high and lowbiodiversity value. In order to ensureeffective planning and management itis considered critically important thatpatterns of marine ecosystem processesare understood at a regional scale andthat the drivers of marine ecosystemprocesses are understood at a communitylevel. Section 6 describes how particularspecies react to physical pressures andhow species have evolved specific rolesin the environment at different spatialscales, including emphasising thecritical associations and interactionsthat exists between many species andtheir environment.1.3 BIODIVERSITY VALUESBiodiversity means the diversity of lifeon earth. Over the years, the Conventionon Biological Diversity has reshaped itsapproach and definition of biodiversity. Ithas this to say about the way biodiversityshould be addressed:“in addressing the boundless complexityof biological diversity, it has becomeconventional to think in hierarchicalterms, from the genetic material withinindividual cells, building up throughindividual organisms, populations,species and communities of species, tothe biosphere overall... . At the sametime, in seeking to make managementintervention as efficient as possible, itis essential to take an holistic view ofbiodiversity and address the interactionsthat species have with each other andtheir non-living environment, i.e. towork from an ecological perspective. Byseveral of its decisions the Conferenceof the Parties has explicitly recognisedthe need for this approach. In particular,decision V/6 and its annex providea description and discussion of theecosystem 2 approach, which in effectbecomes the paradigm within which theConvention’s activities are undertaken”. 3When one refers to biodiversity, anoperational definition is needed;something relatively simple butecologically sound, that that can beunderstood and used in a practical sense.