NSW Environmental Protection Agency NSW Government
 

Regional threatened species and habitat priorities in wildlife habitat clump design

This webpage provides guidance for consideration of regional threatened species and habitat priorities when designing a wildlife habitat clump, as referred to in Protocol 22.2(1)(m) of the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval (Coastal IFOA). It is intended to assist decision making when conducting and regulating forestry operations under the Coastal IFOA conditions and protocols.

Note: this guidance does not affect the legal requirements of the Coastal IFOA and its protocols. This guidance is not a substitute for the Coastal IFOA conditions and protocols and does not modify their terms or effect. Terms used in this guidance document have the same meaning as defined in Coastal IFOA Protocol 39, ‘Definitions’.

Regional threatened species and habitat priorities

Threatened species, endangered populations, other species of interest and habitat priorities should be identified at an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia (IBRA) subregion scale.

Threatened species, endangered populations, other species of interest and habitat priorities identified in each IBRA subregion should be assessed, ranked, and prioritised for inclusion in a wildlife habitat clump following consideration of each of the following:

  • threat status
  • relative threat from forestry operations
  • distribution/uniqueness to the IBRA subregion
  • species characteristics e.g. ability to disperse across the landscape
  • protection afforded by other Coastal IFOA conditions or protocols
  • habitat in surrounding reserves
  • suitability of wildlife habitat clump approach to protection e.g. considering whether long term protection in a wildlife habitat clump may be detrimental to a threatened species, an endangered population, other species of interest or habitat priority
  • any other information relevant to the threatened species, endangered population, other species of interest or habitat priority.

Following the assessment, ranking and prioritising of threatened species, endangered populations and other species of interest, where possible retained wildlife habitat clumps should include habitat valuable to highly ranked priority species as well as other habitats listed in Protocol 22.2(1) where any of these are present.