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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 10 Hansard (13 October) . . Page.. 3083 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

including animal welfare and management, environmental education, advocacy and promotion, environmental research and information and on-ground environmental projects.

Mr Speaker, I would like to elaborate on these achievements. In December 1997, the ACT Government released the ACT nature conservation strategy. The former Minister is here with us today and is to be congratulated on that achievement. Developed to meet the ACT's obligations under the national strategy for the conservation of Australia's biological diversity, the strategy was the first by an Australian state or territory government. The nature conservation strategy and the first implementation plan developed for 1998-99 were monitored by the Environment Advisory Committee.

It provides a strategic framework for nature conservation decision-making in the ACT. The management of non-urban areas of the ACT is guided by management plans as required by the Land Act 1991 and directed by the conservator. Developing management plans is a staged process and includes input from a range of groups, including the ACT Environment Committee, the Flora and Fauna Committee, along with extensive public consultation.

The statutory referral of a draft management plan to the ACT Standing Committee on Urban Services also ensures that the community is able to debate and participate in the development of management proposals for public land. Over the last two years, the ACT Government has developed management plans for the Murrumbidgee River corridor, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and the Canberra Nature Park. A draft plan is being developed for the Lower Molonglo River and a management plan for Ginini Flats, a wetland of international importance, is being finalised.

There has also been development of an implementation plan to support the Murrumbidgee River Corridor plan of management, and similar implementation plans will be developed for all other management plans within 12 months of finalisation. In addition to the nature parks and reserves, plans of management are required for urban open space. These plans of management require consultation with the conservator. Final plans of management for Belconnen and Woden/Weston have been released and draft plans for inner North and South Canberra and Tuggeranong regions have gone through the public comment phase and it is expected that they will be referred to the Urban Services Committee in the near future.

It is hoped to have the plan of management for urban lakes and ponds released for public comment before Christmas. The declaration first, and then development, of action plans is another significant way of protecting our biodiversity, particularly for species and communities threatened with extinction. In the ACT, 24 such declarations have been made. Two are ecological communities, five are plant species, three are invertebrates, three are fish species, two are mammals, six are birds, two are reptiles and one is an amphibian species.

To protect ecologically sensitive communities declared under the Nature Conservation Act 1980, four reserves have been established to protect natural temperate grasslands. In 1995 the Government created the first nature reserve in the ACT and Southern

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