67 BURDEKIN DRY TROPICS NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN 2016-2026
REGIONAL GOAL the basis for many natural assets of the region( eg. soil, water, vegetation), the sustainability strategies included in the previous four sections- People connections, Climate change, Land, and Water also work to protect and enhance our region’ s biodiversity which supports healthy industries and communities in our region.
Figure 16- Bioregions within the BDT region
BIODIVERSITY
SNAPSHOT Our
region’ s biodiversity
The Burdekin Dry Tropics is an incredibly biodiverse region, being the confluence of seven bioregions, with natural assets of national and international significance, including two World Heritage Areas, two Marine Parks, 25 National Parks, one
Ramsar-listed wetland and 34
Nationally-Important Wetlands. Additionally, there are 1,621 km ² of Nature Refuges, and other Voluntary Conservation Agreements covering sites of high biodiversity within our region. Landholders play an important role in protecting biodiversity, as the majority of our region consists of private land. Figure 18, p 68 shows the high biodiversity areas and habitat corridors, which were identified in the Queensland Government’ s biodiversity planning assessments for our region.
An intact biodiversity is critical to the integrity of natural ecosystems and their services which make a vital contribution to our quality of life and wellbeing, and underpin the region’ s prosperity( Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2009). As ecosystems and their services form
1. Terrestrial diversity
Our region forms a biogeographic feature known as the‘ dry corridor’ that adjoins wet tropical bioregions to the north and south and extends the range of fauna and flora more typical of the drier interior to the coast( Kikkawa & Pearce, 1969). The three main bioregions of our region are the Brigalow Belt North, the Desert Uplands and the Einasleigh Uplands. Portions of the Wet Tropics, Central Queensland Coast, Southern Brigalow Belt and Gulf Plains bioregions also occur within our region( see Figure 16). All of these bioregions are closely associated with a particular combination of geology, landform and soil that supports a very high diversity of regional ecosystems.
The terrestrial regional ecosystems span the full suite of tropical biodiversity from inland to the coast( see Figure 17, p 68). They vary from rangelands( which dominate our region) including open
“ Ecosystem services are the benefits provided to humans through the transformation of resources( or environmental assets, including land, water, vegetation and atmosphere) into a flow of essential goods and services; eg clean air, water and food”( Costanza, et al., 1997). Priority ecosystem services include:
• pollination;
• regulation of climate eg carbon sinks and greenhouse gas absorption;
• biological control of pests;
• provision of genetic resources – future sources of food and medicine;
• maintenance of habitat;
• provision of shade and shelter;
• maintenance of soil health;
• maintenance of healthy waterways;
• water filtration and erosion control;
• regulation of rivers and groundwater; and
• waste absorption and breakdown.