Maintaining Australia's Biodiversity Hotspots
About the programme brochure
Department of the Environment and Water Resources, November 2007
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Introduction
The Maintaining Australia’s Biodiversity Hotspots (MABH) programme is about taking a cost-effective, proactive approach to managing threats in high conservation value areas that are still relatively intact and maintaining their biodiversity values. Managing the threats effectively requires taking a whole of landscape approach, across all tenures, to promote active, ongoing conservation management.
The MABH programme aims to improve the conservation of biodiversity hotspots on private and leasehold land by enhancing active conservation management and protection of existing terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems as habitat for native plants and animals.
What activities are supported?
The programme supports two activities in hotspot areas; stewardship payments for on-ground biodiversity improvements and voluntary acquisitions.
The stewardship payments offer direct financial support to land-holders to help them protect existing natural habitats with high conservation values. The payments will provide support to those land mangers that have already made a commitment to maintaining the biodiversity values of their properties. Investments will be determined on the basis of a competitive tender process, where the 'best value for money' conservation services to deliver the specified biodiversity outcomes will be purchased.
Large properties with outstanding biodiversity values are those most likely to be targeted for voluntary acquisitions. Funding will be provided to registered charitable organisations on condition they manage the properties for conservation in perpetuity and can demonstrate organisational capacity and prior extensive property acquisition and management experience.
How does the programme work?
The MABH programme is aimed at areas that meet the definition of a hotspot so not all areas will be eligible for funding.
Identification of hotspots for this programme uses a set of criteria that are found below:
The programme guidelines and investment critieria are found below:
The programme will be delivered by a panel of delivery agents who are environment non government organisations:
Landholders will be involved in either the acquisition or the stewardship proposals:
How are hotspots identified?
Biodiversity hotspots are present in the landscape at a range of scales, from locally important sites, like riparian forests, to regions, like the North Kimberley of Western Australia, to the megadiverse nations of the world, such as Australia.
For the purposes of this programme, the national delivery agents will identify hotspots for investment using criteria that focus on:
- Natural ecosystems with largely intact and native species and communities well represented.
- The area has high diversity of endemic species.
- Current, planned or potential management activities place the natural values at risk, and it is likely this risk will increase in the future in the absence of active conservation management.
- The area has the potential to provide value-for-money in contributing to conservation of biodiversity.
The Department will compare between the national delivery agent proposals to assess cost-effectiveness of investment in the regions and projects proposed.
What are the programme guidelines?
The priorities for identifying locations for investment under the programme are:
- Natural ecosystems with largely intact and native species and communities well represented.
- The area has high diversity of endemic species.
- Current, planned or potential management activities place the natural values at risk, and it is likely this risk will increase in the future in the absence of active conservation management.
- The area has the potential to provide value-for-money in contributing to conservation of biodiversity.
The programme supports two activities; stewardship payments for on-ground biodiversity improvements and voluntary acquisitions. These guidelines provide help in understanding the process and criteria for seeking funding support under each activity.
Who are the National delivery agents?
An exciting feature of the programme is that it draws on the considerable expertise of Australia’s non-government conservation organisations to deliver the programme.
Following a rigorous open tender process, nine non-government conservation organisations have been engaged by the Department of the Environment and Water Resources to help deliver some $21 million of biodiversity protection projects across Australia.
The delivery agents are responsible for finding and developing investment opportunities that meet or exceed the programme guidelines. The agents have identified locations and proposals for investment, according to the programme guidelines. When the proposals are agreed, the national delivery agents will approach landholders in the targeted areas to participate in the programme.
Proposals from the delivery agents must meet the programme guidelines and will be considered competitively. Organisations or consortia on the panel are not guaranteed funding in this competitive environment. The Department may use the panel to deliver other funded programmes or projects where the requirements of those projects are within the scope of the original panel request for tender.
When available, information about the hotspots for action and projects to be implemented by the delivery agents will be posted on this site.
How do landholders become involved?
Funding to landholders will be directed through the national delivery agents. A summary of approved projects for investment under the MABH programme will be placed on this website as soon as it is available.
The delivery agents will call for expressions of interest from landholders to participate in the activities proposed within certain hotspot regions. Landholders who express an interest in stewardship funding can then expect a site visit from delivery agent field staff where they can discuss the individual project objectives and how their land may meet the programme guidelines. The Mount Lofty Initiative, Bushbids provides a good example of this process.
The national delivery agents have also been given responsibility for sourcing large, high biodiversity value properties for acquisition. Delivery agents may source acquisitions from the open market or from their own dealings with interested landholders. If you are a landholder interested in voluntary acquisition of your property for conservation purposes and your property is within an area targeted for hotspots investment, contact your national delivery agent.
Applications will be assessed based on value for money. Therefore, land-holders who are willing to contribute to the costs of conservation actions are likely to be most competitive in the stewardship tender process.
Likewise, acquisition proposals that leverage significant funding from outside sources will be more competitive than those that require the funding up to the limit set out in the programme guidelines
How much funding has been allocated?
During the current financial year the programme will seek to deliver some $21 million in projects across Australia.
Investments
The programme has already invested some $12 million of funding in a range of initiatives.
Initiatives funded under MABH programme include:
The Mount Lofty Initiative
In August 2004 the Prime Minister announced the $1.5 million Mount Lofty Initiative. This initiative assists private landholders to protect and enhance the biodiversity values of the eastern Mount Lofty Ranges through property based conservation agreements.
Brooklyn Station
In May 2005, the Minister announced that $4.5 million had been provided to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy to purchase Brooklyn Station, in far north Queensland. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy will protect and manage the property for conservation in perpetuity.
Daintree Conservation Initiative and Cassowary Conservation Project
In August 2004 the Government announced $6 million in funding to enhance Australia's national reserve system through the addition of land in the wet tropics. The Daintree contains 13 different rainforest types and hugely diverse and complex plant and animal life systems that are of national and international significance.
| Organisation | Service engaged for | Area of interest |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Bush Heritage Fund | Acquisition | Southern Australia |
| Australian Wildlife Conservancy | Acquisition Stewardship | Australia |
| Greening Australia | Acquisition Stewardship | Australia |
| Queensland Murray Darling Committee | Stewardship | Murray Darling Basin |
| Tasmanian Land Conservancy | Acquisition Stewardship | Tasmania |
| WetlandCare Australia | Stewardship | Wetland environments |
| World Wide Fund for Nature Australia/ Northern Australia Consortium | Acquisition Stewardship | Northern Australia |
| Wildlife Conservancy of Tropical Queensland | Acquisition | Northern Queensland |
See also
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