Easter Health-check Step by Step Guide. By Golo Maurer, BirdLife Australia Important Bird and Biodiversity Area Program Manager Last updated May 2016

Transcription

1 Easter Health-check Step by Step Guide By Golo Maurer, BirdLife Australia Important Bird and Biodiversity Area Program Manager Last updated May 2016

2 IBA Guardian This section reports on the basics for the Guardian and IBA Guardian Details Mostly self-explanatory. Membership details: Not compulsory but if you would like to find out please contact IBA Coordinator: Not all branches or states currently have an IBA Coordinator. If no or unknown coordinator please state IBA Program Manager Surveyed IBA basic info Incomplete coverage: State e.g. XY National Park but not YZ State forest section parts of IBA. Or NSW but not QLD section of IBA covered. Some large IBAs may have more than one guardian e.g. a QLD and NSW one. If so it is recommended to fill in one form jointly. If two forms are submitted. If more than 1 form is submitted the IBA Program Manager will merge the information. % IBA covered: Rough estimate is fine. Year covered: Please report for a 1 year period only stretching from Easter in the year 20ii -1 to Easter in 20ii. Field Visit vs Desktop study: Wherever possible we encourage Health-checks to be completed by Guardians that are familiar with the IBA through field visits. For remote IBAs, however, we welcome Health-checks based on desktop researche.g. reports in the grey literature, phonecalls with rangers etc. Survey effort (Enter NONE or DO NOT KNOW if required) If you are unsure re BirdLife Australia surveys please contact: Andrew.Silcocks@birdlife.org.au for information. Number of volunteers and total hours: Rough estimate is fine. Can be calculated from survey data. For other Bird or non-bird date see Example below Non BA surveys, describe in a few words Seabird Nest count Species Albatross and Petrel species Frequency of surveys e.g. irregular, daily Biennial Number of volunteers and total hrs p.a. Paid staff only 2 weeks solid by 3 staff Where are the data stored? Atlas of Living Australia Contact for surveys and data Name: Jocelyn Subject Organisation: Dept. Environment WA Jocelyn.Subject@WA.gov.au Phone:

3 State of trigger species habitat in the IBA you are reporting on This section reports on the State of the IBA and its Target Species and relies on recent bird surveys but the Easter Health-check is NOT a Survey report and does NOT expect you to collect or summarize bird surveys. For field based assessments much of this section may be filled out on personal experience. Nonetheless, gathering additional information from the grey literature or personal communications with land holders and environmental managers or from published vegetation data will help refine the answers. EXAMPLE: Species Name Habitat Description Area Rating Quality Rating e.g. Migratory Mudflat feeding Good Poor Shorebirds e.g. Migratory Shorebirds Artificial roost Island Poor Good Describe major habitat changes since the last health-check or write NONE. Only fill out if changes occurred since the last Health-checks span 2 or more categories, e.g. from moderate to good) please be detailed but concise. EXAMPLE: Following the destruction of the natural roost in the previous year an artificial roost Island was created nearby this year and quickly accepted by shorebirds. Where can I find out about the bird surveys of my IBA? If you require bird survey data as part of the habitat assessment you can find fully vetted data from the BirdLife Australia Atlas here birdata.com.au/maps.vm If you need a detailed extraction of survey data for your area, please contact the National IBA Program Manager (iba@birdlife.org.au) On ebird you can find bird surveys for your IBA as described on this website. Instead of drawing the polygon yourself you can choose the IBA on our Google Earthfile and save it individually before uploading it on the ebird-tools website. Ebird will produce histograms per species for the area and you can map the distribution of the species of interest and look up count data for each point. Published reports in Ornithological Journals can be found here: It may also pay to conduct a google search with the IBA or reserve s name to find Grey Literature and reports. 1

4 Threats and pressures assessment This section reports on the Pressures to the IBA. We are fully aware that this section is not without its ambiguity as Threats can arise very quickly and have a greater impact than expected. The matrix below captures the best knowledge at the time and IBA Guardians revise this in the annual Easter Health-checks. If you are unsure mark the threat DO NOT KNOW. When rating the threats please consider only if and how they affect at least one Target Species or their habitat. E.g. An IBA was declared for Swift Parrots but not Hooded Plovers which also occur. Recreational Activities e.g. Dogs off leash may threaten Plovers but not Swift Parrots the Target Species. This threat should therefore not be rated and marked N/A. Make sure no threat remains un-rated. For threats that do not receive a score state N/A or DO NOT KNOW as appropriate so it is clear they were considered Timing rate in relation to the year of the current Easter Health-check. Scale rate for the asset affected most: area or bird population. E.g. The destruction of a shorebird roost will affect < 10% of the area (rate 0) but > 90% of shorebirds (rate 3). In this case rate Scale as 3 rather than 0. Severity rate according to the effect on at least one Target Species population decline. Rapid: >30%loss over 10 years or 3 generations; Moderate: >10% loss over 10 years or 3 generations; Slow: <10% loss over 10 years or 3 generations; None: <1% loss over 10 years or 3 generations. Timing relative to this Easter Health-check Scale of effect on area or at least 1 target species population Severity of population decline over 10y or 3 generation 3 Happening in last year 3 >90% of area or 1 pop. 3 Rapid >30% 2 Likely within 4 years 2 >50% of the area or 1 pop. 2 Moderate >10% 1 Likely beyond 4 years 1 >10% of the area or 1 pop. 1 Slow <10% 0 Past or unlikely 0 <10% area or 1 pop. 0 None <1% Mark irrelevant or unknown threats N/A or DO NOT KNOW EXAMPLES: Below table is filled out partially for a hypothetical Plains Wanderer IBA. It has 50% sheep grazing and PW thrive in this habitat. You read about a possible mining project in the paper. Pressure Type Timing Scale Severity Comments Agriculture cropping Cropping failed before Agriculture grazing Currently good for PW Horticulture N/A Unsuitable Forestry DO NOT KNOW Mining Oil and gas license to explore applies 2

5 Sources to help you fill out this section are: Guardians that live or work near the IBA will often be able to complete the Threats section based on following the local news. The conservation map developed by BirdLife Australia tracks Threats, Conservation Actions and successes currently mainly for shorebirds. It is available on: Other sources especially for the desktop Health-check include: - Talking to Branch Conservation officer - The list of EPBC referrals - Council planning schemes - Web search using the IBA or national park name - Talking to Friends groups - Talking to local land-holders - Consultant reports - Management planning documents of Parks or Indigenous Ranger Groups 3

6 Conservation Actions in the IBA This section reports on the conservation Responses to help protect the IBA Government actions Legal protection e.g. National Park (tick 1 or Do not know) If unsure see CAPAD environment.gov.au/land/nrs/science/capad Habitat Management Plans If you have identified a protection designation government or private you will usually be able to find or request a management plan from the relevant website e.g. parks or IPA etc. Conservation actions for habitat or Target Species For many threatened species a recovery plan will exist that suggests actions: environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/recovery-plans Otherwise the Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 is the most recent document detailing required conservation steps publish.csiro.au/pid/6781.htm Community actions (tick one or many or state do not know) Conservation NGOs active in IBA This taps into your knowledge of local groups. Look outside the BirdLife Australia box friends groups etc. Actions taken by NGOs if known Some actions are likely to tick several boxes here. For volunteers and hours please produce a conservative estimate for the whole year for all NGOs involved. Number of volunteers p.a.: Total hours p.a.: Where can I find out more about the Conservation Actions for my IBA? The conservation map developed by BirdLife Australia tracks Threats, Conservation Actions and successes currently mainly for shorebirds. It is available on: Other sources especially for the desktop Health-check include: - Talking to Branch Conservation officer - Talking to Friends groups - Calling up National Parks Staff where the IBA overlaps with Parks 4

7 - Talking to Indigenous Rangers where they are involved in the area s management. Some ranger groups can be found - Getting in touch with the Natural Resources Management bodies and checking their environmental management plans - Web search using your IBAs or Park s name General comments e.g. reports, data sources etc recent conservation developments (optional, provide on additional sheets or files) The Health-check provides the chance to deposit relevant information for your IBA with BirdLife Australia for future reference to iba@birdlife.org.au How many hours did it take you to complete the form? Other feedback is also welcome send to iba@birdlife.org 5