2021-02-09 P&E Agenda - Item 6 - Attachment 1 - Draft Noosa Bushland Reserve Strategic Plan 2021-2026

4.2      Ecosystem Services Values
Ecosystem Services are the goods and services freely delivered by ecosystems that contribute to
the environmental, social and economic well-being of the Noosa community, and to the well-being
of the national and global community. These services are classified in accordance with
Classification of Ecosystem Services by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA. 2005), and
are as follows:

  1. Regulating services: benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes such as water
      regulation, erosion regulation, waste regulation, climate regulation and natural hazard regulation
      (e.g. droughts, floods, and storms).

   2. Supporting services: those that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services.
        They differ from provisioning, regulating, and cultural services in that their impacts on people are
        often indirect or occur over a very long time, whereas changes in the other categories have
        relatively direct and short-term impacts on people. Some services, like erosion regulation, can be
        categorised as both a supporting and a regulating service, depending on the time- scale and
        immediacy of their impact on people. Supporting services include primary production, nutrient
        cycling and water cycling.

   3. Provisioning services: products obtained from ecosystems, e.g. fresh water, food, fibre, fuel,
        genetic resources, biochemical, natural medicines and pharmaceuticals.

   4. Cultural services: non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual
        enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences, e.g. cultural
        diversity, knowledge systems, educational values, social relations, sense of place, cultural heritage
        and ecotourism.

Some specific examples of Ecosystem Services that Council’s bushland reserve network
contribute to include but are not limited to catchment values, recreational values, landscape and
scenic amenity values and climate change amelioration.


4.2.1          Catchment Values
The Noosa River system has the highest water quality rating of all SEQ waterways. Together with
the extensive Cooloola National Park, Council’s bushland reserve network contributes to this high
water quality by protecting riparian vegetation along waterways, maintaining bank stability, and
contributing to reduced sediment load entering the Noosa River.

The Noosa River catchment comprises approximately 63% of the shire while approximately 36% of
the Shire is within the Mary River catchment. Waterways such as Six Mile Creek have intact
riparian vegetation and contribute to reduced sediment flows into the Mary River system. A number
of bushland reserves also protect coastal waterways such as on Noosa North Shore and the
coastal strip south of Noosa Heads to the shire boundary.

Council has a number of reserves within each broad catchment area as outlined in Figure 8.

Reserve representation within Catchments

                                                                           2
 Noosa Shire Catchments            Number of               Total Area (m )             % of Total Area
                                   Reserves
 Noosa River                       117                     29699224.23                 84.21%
 Maroochy River                    5                       453888.20                   1.43%
 Mary River Sub-                   56                      4539617.97                  14.36%
 catchments
 TOTAL                             178                     34692730.42                 100%


Noosa Bushland Reserves Strategic Plan 2021 – 2026                                                       Page 14