Wetlands Australia National Wetlands Update 2012
Issue No. 20, February 2012
ISSN 1446-4843
Tasmania Government Update
In Tasmania more than 900 hectares of wetlands have been protected under conservation agreements by the Private Land Conservation Program (PLCP). This program delivers conservation agreements to protect important natural values, and wetlands have been a focus of this work. The program encourages an integrated approach to private land management and planning that helps landholders fully benefit from the sustainable management of their properties' natural diversity. It provides a coordinated and targeted approach to the establishment of voluntary conservation agreements with private landowners. To this end, the PLCP manages all of Tasmania's voluntary covenanting under the Nature Conservation Act 2002, as well as the Land for Wildlife and Gardens for Wildlife initiatives.
All freshwater Tasmanian threatened communities are represented in the PLCP, together with large areas of saltmarsh, saline lagoons and sedgelands. In the past two years the PLCP Monitoring Team has produced a manual of wetland monitoring methods, and has set up baseline monitoring on at least half of the 42 properties involved. This baseline monitoring will be important in assessing the changes in these wetlands over time with regards to changes in land management and impact of future climate change on these generally resilient ecosystems.
Also, Tasmania's contribution to the National Groundwater Dependant Ecosystem (GDE) Project is progressing well. Workshops were held to determine rule sets for identifying GDEs and the first draft map has been completed.
