Biodiversity is fundamentally important. Each species has an intrinsic right to exist and has a role to play in the ecosystem. Conservation status represents one way of describing the risk of extinction for species and ecological communities. Conservation status can inform the development of policy and management actions to protect threatened species and ecological communities to minimise extinction risk. Legislation and policy documents, including the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999, the Australian Government’s 2021-2031 Threatened Species Strategy, the Water Act 2007 (the Water Act), and the Basin Plan 2012 (the Basin Plan) set out obligations to protect threatened species and ecological communities and address key threatening processes to these. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority, particularly under instruments such as the Water Act and Basin Plan, has obligations to protect and restore water-dependent ecosystems that support the life cycles of listed threatened species and ecological communities. For certain taxonomic groups, such as plants, there are challenges determining which threatened species and ecological communities are reliant on Basin water resources. The inability to easily identify threatened species or ecological communities that rely on water-dependent ecosystems hampers the ability to develop policy or management strategies to protect those species or ecological communities.
This project developed a process to identify EPBC-listed plant species and ecological communities in the Murray-Darling Basin that depend on water resources that are potentially influenced by the Basin Plan. This talk focuses on the process, which includes spatial, ecological and management considerations covering both quantitative and qualitative assessments. This talk also highlights challenges defining ‘water-dependence', such as the influence of multiple sources of water (e.g. rainfall, groundwater, free surface water) and the ability to influence outcomes with water management.