Caveat 1
PURPOSE
This report is designed to assist in identifying the location of matters of national environmental significance (MNES) and other matters protected by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act) which may be relevant in determining obligations and requirements under the EPBC Act.
The report contains the mapped locations of:
• Wetlands of International and National Importance; • World and National Heritage properties; • Commonwealth and State/Territory reserves; • distribution of listed threatened, migratory and marine species; • listed threatened ecological communities; and • other information that may be useful as an indicator of potential habitat value.
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DISCLAIMER
Where data is available to inform the mapping of protected species, the presence type (e.g. known, likely or may occur) that can be determined from the data is indicated in general terms. It is the responsibility of any person using or relying on the information in this report to ensure that it is suitable for the circumstances of any proposed use. The Commonwealth cannot accept responsibility for the consequences of any use of the report or any part thereof. To the maximum extent allowed under governing law, the Commonwealth will not be liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of, or reliance on the contents of this report. This report is not intended to be exhaustive and should only be relied upon as a general guide as mapped data is not available for all species or ecological communities listed under the EPBC Act (see below). Persons seeking to use the information contained in this report to inform the referral of a proposed action under the EPBC Act should consider the limitations noted below and whether additional information is required to determine the existence and location of MNES and other protected matters.
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DATA SOURCES
Threatened ecological communities
For threatened ecological communities where the distribution is well known, maps are generated based on information contained in recovery plans, State vegetation maps and remote sensing imagery and other sources. Where threatened ecological community distributions are less well known, existing vegetation maps and point location data are used to produce indicative distribution maps. Threatened, migratory and marine species Threatened, migratory and marine species distributions have been discerned through a variety of methods. Where distributions are well known and if time permits, distributions are inferred from either thematic spatial data (i.e. vegetation, soils, geology, elevation, aspect, terrain, etc.) together with point locations and described habitat; or modelled (MAXENT or BIOCLIM habitat modelling) using point locations and environmental data layers. Where little information is available for a species or large number of maps are required in a short time-frame, maps are derived either from 0.04 or 0.02 decimal degree cells; by an automated process using polygon capture techniques (static two kilometre grid cells, alpha-hull and convex hull); or captured manually or by using topographic features (national park boundaries, islands, etc.).
In the early stages of the distribution mapping process (1999-early 2000s) distributions were defined by degree blocks, 100K or 250K map sheets to rapidly create distribution maps. More detailed distribution mapping methods are used to update these distributions when time permits.
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LIMITATIONS
• migratory species that are very widespread, vagrant, or only occur in Australia in small numbers. • some listed migratory and listed marine species, which are not listed as threatened species; and The following species and ecological communities have not been mapped and do not appear in this report: • threatened species listed as extinct or considered vagrants; • some recently listed species and ecological communities;
The following groups have been mapped, but may not cover the complete distribution of the species:
• listed migratory and/or listed marine seabirds, which are not listed as threatened,
have only been mapped for recorded breeding sites; and
• seals which have only been mapped for breeding sites near the Australian continent
The breeding sites may be important for the protection of the Commonwealth Marine environment. Refer to the metadata for the feature group (using the Resource Information link) for the currency of the information.
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