The draft Border Ranges Rainforest Biodiversity Management Plan has recently been released for public comment. This is your opportunity to get involved in guiding the direction of recovery actions for the rainforests and related communities, and their component species, found in the Border Ranges Biodiversity Hotpot area over the next 10 years. The public comment period closes on Friday, 28 August 2009.

The draft recovery plan, its appendices and maps can be downloaded from the Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts' website, visit http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/recovery/border-ranges.html. For a hard copy, contact the Department's Community Information Unit, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Freecall: 1800 803 772.

The extract below is from the Department's website:

"The Border Ranges Rainforest Biodiversity Management Plan constitutes the formal national regional recovery plan for threatened species and communities of the Border Ranges North and South (Queensland and New South Wales) Biodiversity Hotspot. The Plan considers the conservation requirements of rainforest and closely related species and communities in the Border Ranges region of NSW and Queensland, which is centred on the McPherson Ranges. It also addresses other species of conservation significance so as to manage the area's biodiversity in a holistic and cost-effective manner.

The Plan identifies the actions to be taken to ensure the long-term viability of the threatened and significant species of the rainforest and related vegetation of the Border Ranges Hotspot, including those that:

• improve communication within and between agencies, departments and the community;
• promote land acquisition, private land covenants, rainforest and associated stream and river management and restoration within the identified regional climate change linkages;
• ensure statutory instruments are used to protect rainforest and related vegetation from clearing and habitat loss;
• inhibit the processes and practices that fragment, modify and/or degrade biodiversity values of rainforest and related ecosystems and promote and facilitate the active management of rainforest;
• restore modified/degraded rainforest and related habitat and recreate corridors of rainforest and related ecosystems for movement and dispersal of species;
• prevent new weed invasions or establishment and encourage a consistent approach to weed invasions and strategic control through partnerships/alliances between all key agencies and landholders;
• protect rainforest and related vegetation from inappropriate fire regimes;
• establish systems that coordinate detection, control/eradication, monitoring and reporting on new and emerging pest animals and coordinate strategic control of existing pest animals in the Border Ranges rainforest and related vegetation;
• protect rainforest, riparian rainforest and associated watercourses from livestock;
• reduce the impacts on rainforest and related vegetation from road, track and utility corridor construction and maintenance;
• prevent introduction of diseases and pathogens by implementing hygiene protocols;
• undertake in situ management, and assess the need for ex situ conservation and translocation programs;
• undertake active engagement with the Indigenous community and the broader community; and
• establish monitoring and evaluation programs for biodiversity projects undertaken as part of the implementation of this Plan."

Comments on the draft recovery plan should be sent to:

Mail:
Director
Recovery, Planning and Implementation Section
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Fax: 02 6274 1921