Wetlands Australia National Wetlands Update 2012
Issue No. 20, February 2012
ISSN 1446-4843
Northern Territory Government Update
Ecological values of aquatic ecosystems across the Lake Eyre Basin (LEB) and northern Australia were assessed in two major projects trialling national guidelines for identifying High Ecological Value Aquatic Ecosystems (HEVAE). Also in the LEB, some of the first systematic fish sampling for central Australian rivers is happening under the cross-jurisdictional LEBRA (River Assessment) program.
On-ground work at HEVAE sites, funded through Caring for Our Country and several NT Government programs, include pig and banteng control at Cobourg Peninsula (Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Service and Indigenous Rangers) and a joint (NT Government, Charles Darwin University and the Extractive Industry Association) project to minimise the environmental impacts of gravel and sand extraction on the Howard Springs Sandsheets.
Three recent conservation agreements under the NT Government's EcoLink program will directly benefit wetlands; at Henbury Station (covering a significant diversity of arid wetland types), at Conlon's Lagoon (near Alice Springs) and at Fish River Station (Daly River catchment). See:
- NT Government – Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport: Territory Eco-link .
Multiple programs in the recently launched Integrated Natural Resource Management Plan 2010-2015 will benefit wetland conservation and management. See:
- Territory Natural Resource Management: 2010-2015 INRM Plan.
Monitoring impacts of camels at waterholes is central to the large camel control project for central Australia. Remote cameras are recording animals using these important water sources and there is a program of invertebrate sampling at remote wetlands.
