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National Parks Journal Volume 50 Number 3 Feature - Climate Change |
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change State Government response to climate change BOB DEBUS, NSW Minister for the Environment, responds to the April-May Journal feature on climate change with a discussion of adaptation measures the State Government is taking on biodiversity and climate change Climate change is one of the most pressing environmental issues facing us today. In NSW, it is now listed as a key threatening process under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. There is already evidence of climate change affecting biodiversity, including effects on species' physiology, distributions and the timing of life cycles.1,2,3 Changes in temperature and rainfall are predicted to have severe effects on some natural resources and native species. They could also accentuate some degrading processes, such as fire, pests and weeds. Habitat loss and fragmentation, and inadequate environmental flows, could disrupt the natural adaptive capacity of many ecosystems and native species. Despite global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, some level of climate change seems inevitable. Action must be taken to enhance the resilience of ecosystems and reduce overall impacts on biodiversity. The National Biodiversity and Climate Change Action Plan As a result of growing concern about the effect of climate change on biodiversity, the National Biodiversity and Climate Change Action Plan (the National Action Plan) was prepared under the direction of the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council and released on 11 October 2004. The National Action Plan (available at www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/nbccap) provides a framework to support adaptation to climate change across Australia, and sets a three-year agenda for biodiversity adaptation planning. The National Action Plan focuses on gathering knowledge; minimising impacts on fresh water, marine and terrestrial biodiversity; and setting actions for protected area establishment, natural resource management and land-use planning. Key strategies include research, awareness raising, promoting ecological connectivity to aid migration and dispersal of species, protecting climatic refuges and creating management zones around important habitats. Uncertainty about the rate and level of warming and the possibility of major dislocations in natural systems, including ocean currents, mean that planning for the future needs to be risk-based. The National Action Plan encourages us to grapple with these issues and make adjustments to existing programs to increase ecological resilience and protect vulnerable species and habitats. NSW Government agencies are currently preparing a State implementation plan in order to meet the objectives set out in the National Action Plan. In addition, the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) is preparing an internal adaptation plan, as the National Action Plan has implications for the full range of DEC's conservation programs and activities. Both of these plans will be completed this year. Biodiversity and climate change research by DEC The recently released NSW Greenhouse Plan has allocated $2 million for a Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Research Program. The program is managed by the NSW Greenhouse Office, which has set key research priorities for this project. Scientists from DEC have recently begun several three-year research projects under this program that examine the impacts and risks of climate change on bushfires, biodiversity, invasive species, aquatic ecosystems and conservation planning. One region where climate change has been identified as one of the greatest threats is in Kosciuszko National Park. Weather records suggest a warming of the alpine climate over the past decade. Worst case predictions modelled by the CSIRO could see a contraction of the snow country to a small area centred on Mount Kosciuszko by 2050, and the possible loss of alpine ecosystems and extinction of species whose climatic ranges are already limited to mountain-tops, such as the Southern Corroboree Frog (Pseudophryne corroboree). DEC has established monitoring programs in the alpine region to measure: the break-up of ice on alpine lakes the duration of ephemeral ice ecosystems (snow depth and temperature under snow cover) vertebrate fauna responses to a 30% reduction in snow cover over the past 40 years snowpatch communities and invertebrate responses. This, coupled with the other projects, will contribute significantly to our scientific understanding of the effect of climate change on species and ecosystems and assist in protecting our environment into the future. References Saintilan N and Williams R, 1999. Mangrove transgression into saltmarsh environments in eastern Australia. Global Ecology and Biogeography 8: 117-124. Hughes L, 2000. Biological consequences of global warming: Is the signal already apparent? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 15: 56-61. Howden M, Hughes L, Dunlop M, Zethoven I, Hilbert D and Chilcott C, 2003. Climate change impacts on biodiversity in Australia. Outcomes of a workshop sponsored by the Biological Diversity Advisory Committee, 1-2 October 2002, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. |
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National
Parks Association of NSW, P.O.Box A96, Sydney South, NSW 1235
Phone: (02) 9299 0000 Fax: (02) 9290 2525 Email: |