Page 3329 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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Let us look at the issues at hand specifically with Throsby. Firstly, let us look at the impact on surrounding nature reserves. As I have just said, even Throsby’s location between Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo nature reserves raises concerns. Urban development will have an impact on those reserves, and even if there were no further concerns, there would need to be measures put in place to reduce the impacts.
Urban development brings with it not just human noise and impact but also cars, concrete and pest species of birds, such as currawongs and Indian myna which are predator species for the native species that are present on the site currently. Humans also bring cats, and while we would imagine that a suburb such as Throsby would be subject to a cat containment policy, such a policy does not mean that there would be no impact.
Interestingly, there is not yet a management plan for Mulligans Flat, and this would seem an important requirement irrespective of any development but absolutely crucial should development east of Horse Park Drive go ahead.
The next issue I want to address is connectivity, because this certainly raises its head in Throsby. The Canberra spatial plan makes some reference to connectivity, but it is probably fair to say our understanding of ecological connectivity in the ACT to date has been somewhat limited and the implementation of policy that addresses ecological connectivity even more so.
However, the government has recently commissioned a study of ecological connectivity issues as part of its climate change action plan No 1. This comprehensive report, which unfortunately was not released publicly and, rather, had to be FOI’d, highlights the importance of connectivity corridors for biodiversity conservation and discusses how early planning is important, as is taking a whole-of-landscape approach. It advocates thinking about connectivity as a long-term process, and that all three types of connectivity—habitat, ecological and landscape connectivity—should be considered in the planning and delivery of projects.
The report says this will require changes to the Planning and Development Act 2007 insofar as the EIS process is concerned. The major drivers of biodiversity loss are habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, with climate change working to exacerbate impacts. These are threats that are live in the ACT with currently proposed urban development, so this report has given the government some timely insights as to how to prepare to improve biodiversity outcomes.
It is important to recognise that animals move across the whole landscape. This is distinct from earlier thinking about species conservation where islands of habitat were located within a sea of hostile areas, such as urban or agricultural land. Connectivity is also very important in terms of long-term conservation of biodiversity to allow for interplay between otherwise remote populations of animals which would otherwise inbreed over time. The ACT government could better plan and manage land use in the ACT in a manner that provides for wildlife movement. This is not just simply providing animal corridors—and I am quoting here from the report—but where an “ecological network of reserves and biodiversity corridors are embedded within a
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