Ecological condition of terrestrial habitat

This Indicator measures the intactness and naturalness of terrestrial vegetation as habitat to support biodiversity, without considering the indirect effects of fragmentation or connections with surrounding suitable habitat. This indicator (3.1a) is part of a family of measures on the condition and connectivity of habitat, including its capacity to support the needs of native plants, animals and ecosystems in NSW, as a proportion relative to that in the pre-industrial era. Ecological condition and ecological carrying capacity are used to estimate the ‘state of biodiversity including undiscovered species’ and ecological condition is used to estimate ‘expected survival of all known and undiscovered species’ is one of a series of indicators on the status of biodiversity and ecological integrity in NSW developed to contribute to assessing the performance of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. The overarching indicator framework which outlines how indicators are related and derived is presented in the “method to assess biodiversity and ecological integrity across New South Wales” (OEH, 2018).