2018-08-07 P&E Agenda - Attachment 1 to Item 3 - Noosa Biosphere Reserve 10 Year Periodic Review

                                                                      Noosa Biosphere Reserve - Periodic Review 2018




3.       ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

3.1      Update services provided by each ecosystem and beneficiaries

Ecosystem services

The NBR has 61 identified terrestrial Regional Ecosystems which are defined as “vegetation
communities in a bioregion that are consistently associated with a particular combination of geology,
landform and soil. In addition marine and freshwater ecosystems are highly dependent on the condition
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of the terrestrial ecosystems” (Sattler & Williams).

With reference to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Framework and the Economics of
Ecosystems and Biodiversity, there has been no comprehensive assessment to economically quantify
the value of each ecosystem type in NBR. The latest biodiversity assessment report – Noosa
Biodiversity Assessment Report (NBAR) prepared by EcoLogical Australia in 2016 – notes ‘the value
the Noosa shire residents and visitors place on ecosystem services, particularly in regards to
recreational tourism and cultural services is significant. This is an important element in considering the
overall value of biodiversity in this area’.

The services that ecosystems provide to the tourism industry are a strong economic indicator and in the
year ending 2015 tourists spent $700 million in the NBR (Noosa Shire Local Economic Plan 2016).

The NBAR groups regional ecosystems into Broad Vegetation Types (Map 3), each BVG providing
ecosystem services to the Noosa community as summarised in Table 9 below:

Table 9. Ecosystem services provided by Broad Vegetation Types (BVGs)




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      https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/plants-animals/plants/ecosystems/about



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