NSW Biodiversity Strategy 2010-2015: Formation Priorities

New South Wales covers a land area of more than 80 million hectares. To maximise outcomes for biodiversity over such a large area, decisions on where to invest need to be made carefully. In response to this, the NSW Government developed a set of draft Priority Areas for investment in native vegetation management as part of the draft NSW Biodiversity Strategy 2010-2015. State scale priorities for investment are presented in the Priority Areas Map in Part A of the draft Strategy. The draft Strategy divides the ecosystems of NSW based on 15 formations described by Keith (2004), and all have been mapped with the exception of 'Arid Acacia Shrublands', 'Arid Chenopod Shrublands', 'Rivers', 'Marine Waters', 'Estuaries and Coastal Lakes' and 'Freshwater Wetlands'. Part B of the draft Strategy presents Priority Areas for each in a series of 15 'ecosystem profiles'. \n \nThe prioritisation was undertaken using the Biodiversity Forecasting Toolkit (BFT) (NSW DEC 2006), a decision-support system developed by NSW DEC for evaluating biodiversity outcomes and for mapping biodiversity management priorities. Technical detail to support this statement can be obtained from: DECCW (2010) Deriving Priority Areas for Investment: A Technical Report to accompany the draft NSW Biodiversity Strategy This statement describes the data and processes used to produce two interim products to assist the public exhibition of the draft NSW Biodiversity Strategy (2010-15): 1) the derivation of proposed State scale priorities for investment in native vegetation management in NSW; and 2) description of those priorities according to the Keith (2010) vegetation classification. The proposed State scale priorities are described in detail in the draft NSW Biodiversity Strategy 2010-2015. The proposed priorities are subject to comment during public exhibition, and a final version will follow subject to review of comments received on the draft Strategy. \n \nThe data identifies areas that are a priority for investment in management because they are generally: in moderate-to-good condition; well-connected with the surrounding landscape; part of a highly cleared, and/or degraded type of vegetation; and floristically distinct from other, well-conserved types of vegetation. In other words, priority areas are the best remaining examples of distinctive ecosystems that have been highly cleared or degraded across NSW. It is important to note that the data does not identify individual sites 'on-the-ground' and site assessment is required to confirm site values. The map should be viewed at a scale of 1:250,000.