Report to guide vegetation protection across city
27/10/2009 4:24:00 PM
Efforts to protect natural diversity have been boosted with the addition of more than 3400 hectares of remnant vegetation to the Gold Coast conservation network over the past decade, a new report has found.
The report, by environmental consultants Chenoweth, has applauded the city’s Open Space Preservation Levy (OSPL) scheme and Voluntary Conservation Agreements (VCAs) for helping to preserve natural areas and vegetation types.
Developed to assist Gold Coast City Council with future expansion and on-going management of conservation areas, the report looks at evolution of the city’s conservation network between 1998 and 2008.
Council’s Chair of Sustainable City Future Committee, Councillor Peter Young, said the report considered vegetation types across the city and identified gaps within the Gold Coast’s conservation network.
“It shows we have 74 different vegetation types in the city, more than one third of which are well represented in public and private conservation areas,” Cr Young said.
“But the report also identifies 46 vegetation types which are under-represented, including eight which are not present at all across the conservation network.”
He said the report showed many of these under-represented vegetation types were generally those found in coastal areas and along the city’s rivers and streams.
“The findings will help guide us when planning management works in conservation areas and when supporting VCA landholders in managing their properties.
“It could, for instance, mean we might target the conservation partnerships program toward landholders with under-represented vegetation types in order to better protect these.
“And it will help guide us when we consider possible future purchases for our open space acquisition program.”
Cr Young said Council initiatives, including the highly-successful OSPL acquisition program and VCAs had ensured almost 13,500 hectares (or 10.5 per cent of the city) were now managed for nature conservation.
“And through our recently adopted Nature Conservation Strategy, we are working to ensure a greater portion of the total city (55 per cent by 2040) is covered by native vegetation.”
“This report will help us move forward with protecting our important environmental areas.”
