Freshwater Protected Area Resourcbook

8. The direction of current programs and the need for action

8.1 To recapitulate: a historical perspective

The development of systems of representative freshwater reserves needs to be understood in light of the development of representative reserves in terrestrial and marine environments.
The creation of terrestrial reserves preceded the creation of marine reserves by around one hundred years. Freshwater reserves, in their own right, have been an even more recent development²⁶⁵. For most of the last century, terrestrial reserves were created for a variety of reasons, and were mostly established by ad hoc or opportunistic pressures. Even though Australia made an international commitment to the establishment of representative ecosystem reserves 20 years ago, it is only in the last 10 years that most nature conservation agencies have embraced the goal of representing the wide range of ecosystems within each jurisdiction in a system of protected areas.
Within the Australian context, both Commonwealth and State governments are now firmly committed to the establishment of comprehensive, adequate and representative systems of terrestrial reserves, and these programs have now been funded for the best part of a decade. Pressey, however, notes that: "Stating the goal of representativeness in policies and media releases is easy. Applying it to the landscapes that most need protection is difficult, and for the most part, still avoided" (Bob Pressey, pers. comm. June 2001).
Given the slow start that these programs have had, it is understandable that priority has been given to planning at the regional and landscape level. However, these broad-scale programs are now sufficiently well established, we argue, for matters of finer detail to be considered - such as freshwater ecosystems. Pressey has noted that the lack of detailed data and analysis has also been a flaw in the planning of terrestrial reserves (Bob Pressey, pers. comm. June 2001), and this issue clearly needs to be taken into account in regard to the planning of networks of representative freshwater reserves.
It is true that existing systems of terrestrial reserves protect many important freshwater ecosystems. Currently, States and Territories are required to report biennially to the Commonwealth Department of Environment & Heritage (as part of the National Reserve System Program) on the development of the comprehensiveness, adequacy and representativeness of their respective reserve systems. We recommend that DEH include an additional request relating to the next biennial assessment which would require the States to focus reporting on freshwater ecosystems, particularly rivers and aquifer ecosystems. Such information should be made accessible to the public to determine the current state of reservation for freshwater ecosystems. Furthermore, more intensive bioregional analyses, such the one conducted by Fitzsimons & Robertson (2003) for wetlands in the Wimmera bioregion in Victoria, are required Australia-wide in order to assess existing reservation levels for freshwater ecosystems and issues of reserve design.
During the 1990s, all Australian States made policy commitments relating to the establishment of systems of representative freshwater reserves. In the case of Tasmania and South Australia, these commitments remain in draft form at June 2002. However, it must be said that (the special case of the Australian Capital Territory aside) these commitments²⁶⁶ have not been met. Moreover, an examination of State funding programs (discussed in appendices below) indicates that, in general, there has been no concerted effort by State governments to meet strategic biodiversity objectives in the freshwater area.
These commitments remain unfunded perhaps due to the finer scale of freshwater ecosystems, which has allowed them to slip through the net provided by the NRS methodology. Given the slow start that the terrestrial and marine programs have had, it is understandable that priority has been given in the past to planning at the regional and landscape level. However, these broad-scale programs are now sufficiently well established, we argue, for matters of finer detail to be considered.

8.2 Difficulties in managing aquatic protected areas

Generally speaking, the three most important threats to freshwater ecosystems are catchment disturbance, alteration of natural flow regimes, and exotic pests (Saunders et al. 2002, Kingsford et al. 2005). Ideally, protected area management should aim to protect catchments from disturbance, deliver natural flow regimes, and eradicate exotic species. While these strategies present obvious difficulties, such objectives can be approached in many situations (refer to the seminal paper by Saunders et al. 2002 for discussion of general strategies). In the Australian scene, a number of issues and problems need to be addressed:

8.2.1 Linear connected reserves – special issues

The fundamental element of representative reserve management is the separation, as far as possible, of the protected ecosystem from the processes which threaten it. The issue of how the catchment of a reserve might be protected provides an obvious complication with regard to freshwater reserves that does not generally apply to terrestrial or marine reserves²⁶⁷. The use of land and water upstream of the reserve will affect the viability of the reserve itself. The existence of downstream dams and weirs will inhibit or prevent fish passage.
Dunn (2000) ²⁶⁸ discussed potential barriers and constraints to river conservation in some detail. A summary of the main points of her discussion follows:

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  Rivers are linear, so that management needs to consider issues in relation to upstream, downstream and lateral elements of the river.
  
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  Water is essential to life and thus has multiple interest groups competing for its use.
  
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  There may be conflict between State and national perspectives.
  

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  There is a plethora of State legislation with potential conflicting approaches to river management. This may also be reflected by multiple management responsibilities. Where more than one agency has responsibility, no-one takes responsibility.
  
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  Implementation of river management strategies may be recommended at a national or state level, but require action at a local or even property level.
  
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  Interstate boundary issues exist, with different management priorities and strategies potentially being applied to each bank of the river, or to the aquifer which feeds the river.
  
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  Where freehold land abuts a watercourse, many landowners are firmly committed to their riparian rights to water.
  
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  The general community may have unrealistic expectations for river management.
  
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  It is often claimed that there is insufficient communication between researchers and river ecologists with those who manage rivers.
  
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  Rivers are conceptually difficult systems to understand and describe in the necessary complexity.
  
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  Funding issues are likely to restrict the effectiveness of river management.
  
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  Economic pressures on river systems may result in conflicting demands for a limited resource.
  

These difficulties are real, and must be acknowledged and taken into account. This aspect means that creation and management of the reserve must bear catchment issues in mind – and in some cases, seek to influence activities within the catchment in order to protect the values of the reserve. However, this complication is just that: a complication. It does not imply that the concept of a representative freshwater reserve is somehow different in principle to a terrestrial or a marine reserve. The essence of all reserves is that boundaries can be drawn, and management plans and programs prepared, to effectively protect the target ecosystem.

Fitzsimons & Robertson (2003) found that of the 232 wetlands that were at least part covered by a reserve in the Wimmera bioregion, Victoria, only 53 of these had their total area reserved. Further, it was found that while some 18.7% of the total wetland area in the Wimmera was reserved, the area of individual wetlands that were fully protected constituted only 4.5% of the total reserved area. By only reserving a portion of a wetland, it is likely that degrading processes occurring in unprotected areas will ultimately impact on the reserved portion of the wetland.
All reserves are affected to some extent by activities outside their boundaries; an example is the Great Barrier Reef - with current impacts from land use in very large coastal catchments. The management of representative freshwater reserves is difficult, but it is not impossible. The bottom line is a commitment to the protection of our freshwater biodiversity, as well as the wider values which representative reserves can protect.
In the case of short upper-catchment rivers, and wetlands and aquifers with relatively small catchments, efforts should be made to fully protect the entire catchment. It should be noted that Victoria's Heritage Rivers Act provides a high degree of protection to a number of small catchments, mostly catchments of small highland streams already within State Forest or National Parks (see discussion in the Appendices).

8.2.2 Protected area identification and selection

In terms of general principles and approaches, the six stages identified in section 3.3 are largely transportable between terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats. However, in a continent with large arid regions subject to unreliable and widely fluctuating rainfall, a number of points are of particular interest.
At locations where permanent water has been a feature of the landscape over long periods of time, habitats often display a narrow-range of locally endemic aquatic invertebrates (snails, crustaceans, flatworms etc.) that are poor dispersers and lack the capacity for active dispersal and desiccation resistant stages in their life cycles. Typical habitats are springs or spring-fed streams.
Species (such as those above) can have very small distributions and most may not be catered for in systems of protected areas, unless each critical site and its water supply can be fully protected. However, in many cases such ecosystems can be protected to a considerable extent outside reserves by maintaining water flow, riparian vegetation and exclusion of invasive exotics. This can be an issue of particular concern in forestry areas, and in pastoral and other rural areas, as well as some urban environments.
By far the largest amount of information regarding the distributions of aquatic animals is in museum collections. For most invertebrate groups this information is not yet databased. Undertaking this task to enable the accessing of this information as part of a national virtual aquatic biodiversity information system would be a cost effective way to generate a large amount of point data that is currently unavailable for many taxa. These data can then be subjected to spatial analysis, and used as biodiversity surrogates for mapping and protected area identification..