Freshwater ecosystems

5.5 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act

Recent Commonwealth legislation (the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999) has enlarged the Commonwealth’s potential involvement where a number of important issues (like threatened species, and Ramsar sites) are concerned (Environment Australia 1999).
This legislation (the EPBC Act) requires State governments to take more recognition and positive management of sites where listed species (that is: species listed under threatened species legislation - Commonwealth & State; or listed under international agreements – eg: JAMBA & CAMBA) occur. (JAMBA and CAMBA are referred to in the discussion below).
The Act defines matters of national environmental significance (Ramsar wetlands, listed migratory species, threatened species etc). The approval of Minister for Environment is required for actions likely to have a significant impact on these matters. The Act also contains environmental impact assessment provisions, and applies throughout Australia – not just on Commonwealth land.
The Act also paves the way for more extensive use of bilateral environmental agreements between the Commonwealth and individual States, supplementing the use of multilateral agreements such as those underpinning biodiversity, ecologically sustainable development, and forest strategies, as well as the IGAE. Bilateral agreements are easier to negotiate, and are not constrained by the 'lowest common denominator' effect. They have the potential to provide "progressive" jurisdictions with additional Commonwealth assistance in some areas - giving both States and the Commonwealth some extra flexibility in program development.
The EPBC Act provides an overarching assessments and approvals process for all activities which may impact on a Ramsar-listed wetland. Administrative Guidelines exist which assist in determining whether an action should be referred for assessment. In determining the impact of an action, other impacts and current condition can be considered, thus allow cumulative impacts to be taken into account. The EPBC website contains these guidelines and other useful information: http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/ .
A more detailed discussion of the implications of the EPBC Act for freshwater conservation is provided by Chapple (2000).

5.6 Freshwater reserves; the National Heritage framework

The freshwater reserve concept, while little used outside State wetland conservation programs (with the exception of the Victorian Heritage Rivers program discussed below) not only fits well within such programs as the National Reserve System Program, the National River Health Program, and the COAG water reform agenda, but, in my view, is essential to adequately meet national and State commitments for the conservation of biodiversity.

There appear to be opportunities to use proposed changes to the Commonwealth’s heritage regime to encourage the reservation and protection of representative freshwater ecosystems. The Commonwealth intends to replace the Australian Heritage Commission (AHC) with a new body, the Australian Heritage Council, using in part amendments to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999⁸². The intent, apparently, is to strengthen protection for places listed on two new lists: the National Heritage List, and the Commonwealth Heritage List. There is currently a Memorandum of Understanding between the Commonwealth Government and the AHC covering listing of places identified through Regional Forest Agreements. It is intended that the spirit of this memorandum will be met in the new heritage regime.

As discussed above, the RFAs, in part, seek to protect representative examples of terrestrial ecosystems. Logically, under the new heritage regime, areas reserved (or even simply identified) as significant representative freshwater (or marine) ecosystems should also be listed and protected through the same arrangements which apply to RFA reserves. I recommend that this be undertaken.

5.7 The National Wild Rivers Program

In addition to the databases being developed by the National Land and Water Resources Audit, there are three national data frameworks directly relevant to the assessment and management of rivers and wetlands: (a) the directory of important wetlands, (b) the IBRA framework, and (c) the Wild Rivers program. The National Wild Rivers program consists of a wild rivers inventory GIS database covering all Australian States, an explanatory manual covering the use of the GIS data, and a manual covering conservation management guidelines. The GIS data (maps and CD-ROMs) were published in 1999, and the two manuals were published in 1998.
The Wild Rivers Project began in 1993 to systematically identify Australia’s wild rivers and to develop guidelines for the sustainable management of wild rivers. A wild river, as defined by the project, is:

a channel, channel network, or connected network of waterbodies, of natural origin and exhibiting overland flow (which can be perennial, intermittent or episodic) in which:

• 
  the biological, hydrological and geomorphological processes associated with river flow; and
  

• 
  the biological, hydrological and geomorphological processes in the river catchment with which the river is intimately linked,
  

have not been significantly altered since European settlement.

Wild rivers that may flow underground for all or part of their length (eg: through karst) are included.

Not unexpectedly, most rivers meeting the full "Wild Rivers" criteria in Victoria, NSW and Tasmania are those already protected by large terrestrial reserves. This is, however, not true nationally - only 13% of the length of the least disturbed streams fall in existing conservation reserves, 27% on Aboriginal managed land, 16% on vacant crown land and 36% on private land. Nearly 50% of streams flowing through nature conservation reserves were disturbed to some extent, for example, by upstream landuses.
The two most useful maps / datasets deal with (a) a catchment disturbance index, and (b) flow disturbance. Flow disturbance includes consideration of both weirs and dams, and water abstraction.
From the point of view of river management in general, perhaps the most important features of the wild river data are that the disturbance information can assist in identifying rivers of high ecological value, and assist in the reserve selection process once representative rivers and wetlands have been identified. Conversely, rivers with highly disturbed catchments and flows need priority attention in programs designed to manage cumulative impacts, or to rehabilitate ecosystems.
The database is being revised on a low-key basis at Environment Australia, and is now entitled the Australian River Catchment and Condition database. This reflects that fact that the principal ongoing interest in the data-base is in its use as a strategic level indicator of condition across all watercourses on the continent, rather than the project's other brief of identifying significant rivers which were in particularly good condition⁸³. The data is also being built on by the National Land and Water Resources Audit Assessment of River Condition project, discussed below.