2016-12-12 General Committee - Attachment 1 to Item 6 - Biodiversity Assessment Report

                                                   Noosa Biodiversity Plan – Biodiversity Assessment Report



3.7    P rot ect ed R e se rv e s
Noosa’s system of protected reserves includes National Parks, Forest Reserves, Conservation Parks,
Nature Refuges and Resource Reserves (Figure 20). Although not legally an area dedicated for
conservation, State Forests and Land for Wildlife (LFW) also contribute to Noosa’s protection system.
Voluntary Conservation Agreements (VCA’s) have binding covenant protection attached to title. Overall,
36.5% of the Noosa Shire is covered by protected reserves with National Parks forming the highest
proportion of this area (Figure 19). Remnant vegetation is the predominant vegetation type (i.e.
approximately 85%) that is protected within the reserves with only minimal areas of other vegetation
categories including regrowth, contiguous remnant vegetation and scattered trees included within the
protection reserves. The exception to this is State Forest Parks, of which approximately 30% is plantation.




              National Parks, 23.1
                                        State Forest, 6.4

                                                 LFW / VA, 4.4
                                                                                 Resource
                                                                                                     Forest
                                                 Nature Refuge, 1.9            Reserves, 0.3
                                                                                                  Reserves, 0.1
                                             Other, 0.7

   Not protected, 63.5
                                                                                   Conservation Parks, 0.3




Figure 19: Proportion of protection reserves across Noosa Shire

The largest protected reserve within the Noosa Shire is the Great Sandy Strait National Park, which
protects the late Tertiary Cooloola Sandmass and its globally unique habitat, wetland types and
geomorphological forms. It is the largest remaining area of vegetated sand dunes in South–Eastern
Australia, and together with Fraser Island it represents the stronghold for the region’s distinctive flora and
fauna.

The distinctive assemblage of biota, includes invertebrates that exhibit a high degree of endemism. The
area has been refugia for lowland rainforest as the climate dried out during the Pleistocene period. These
areas also include both relictual Gondwanan flora such as Agathis and Araucaria and extensive
rainforests and descendants of the Gondwana flora all of which are growing on infertile sandy soils.
Elsewhere in eastern Australia such forests are mostly found on more fertile soils.

Noosa’s extensive protected reserves play a critical role in conservation management across the SEQ
region. The shire contains 16 REs represented within protected reserves that are poorly protected across
the remaining bioregion. However, 15 REs are noted to be poorly represented within both Noosa and
SEQ. A complete list of under-represented REs is provided in Appendix A.




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