Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the foundation for healthy, functioning ecosystems.
The Biodiversity Program of the NRCMA encompasses terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and attempts to improve the condition of ecosystems in the northern Rivers by:
- Influencing the health, condition and connectivity of vegetation in the landscape
- Reducing the impacts of introduced animals and plants on native vegetation and threatened flora and fauna species and addressing other threats
- Fostering more biodiversity-friendly management within primary industries in the region
How people value the landscape and native species has a major influence on biodiversity, and our investment in biodiversity includes field days, workshops and other awareness raising activities to shift peoples perspectives and activities toward those that truly value biodiversity. Sustainable use of natural resources relies on our ability to sustain and support biodiversity.
The Biodiversity Program relies heavily on the community for stewardship of the regions biodiversity and a significant portion of total funds are directed to landholders either directly or through services provided on their property by contractors. As the Program is delivered primarily through external contract, much of the primary contact with landholders is undertaken by contractors and Community Support Officers on the NRCMAs behalf. Program staff work with contractors but have contact with landholders through those contracts.
Internally managed vegetation incentives programs (such as the Bush Recovery Program) for improvement and maintenance of native vegetation also contribute significantly to the goals of the Biodiversity Program. It is through these incentive programs that our staff work more directly with landholders including site visits, assessment of values and advice on threats and management and ongoing contact with landholders entering conservation agreements with the Northern Rivers CMA.
The Program interacts and works with primary stakeholders in the Region through meetings, partnerships, joint efforts to keep each other informed, forums and ongoing contact.
Managing Native Vegetation
The Native Vegetation Act 2003 came into force in NSW on December 2005 and introduced a new approach to the management of native vegetation across NSW. Learn more about managing native vegetation.
Managing Invasive Species
Two new Invasive Species Management Strategies have been developed with the region's key pest management stakeholders. The Northern Rivers Invasive Plant Action Strategy can be used by weed managers to prioritise weed species for action according to the landscape types occuring in their catchment. The Northern Rivers Pest Animal Management Strategy can be used to ensure that the region's pest animal management is targeted toward its high priority actions with a landscape approach, according to each sub-catchment's context and commmunity capacity. There is a great range of information available on the Cooperative Research Centre for Australian Weed Management (Weeds CRC) website, including 'What does your garden grow?' featuring advice about common garden escapees that have detrimental impacts on our native vegation.
Useful links
Weeds CRC 'What does your garden grow' website
Threatened species guides and fact sheets
As part of one of our projects delivered by WetlandCare, three management brochures (bush regenerarion, graxing, fire & biodiversity) and 5 threatened species & endangered ecological communities fact sheets (littoral rainforest, giant barred frog, glossy black cockatoo, grey-headed flying fox, yellow-bellied glider) have been produced.
