Scientific framework for the NRS
Conducting research at Mornington Sanctuary
Photo: Nick Rains
Lorna Glen, WA
Photo: Nick Rains
Australia is committed to establishing a 'comprehensive, adequate and representative' system of protected areas - commonly referred to as the 'CAR' reserve system. This means the requirements of all the component ecosystems are addressed to ensure the greatest probability of long term survival of native species, communities and ecosystems.
Specifically CAR means:
- Comprehensive: examples of all types of regional-scale ecosystems in each IBRA region should be included in the National Reserve System
- Adequate: sufficient levels of each ecosystem should be included within the protected area network to provide ecological viability and to maintain the integrity of populations, species and communities
- Representative: the inclusion of areas at a finer scale, to encompass the variability of habitat within ecosystems.
The goal of a CAR system of reserves for Australia was endorsed by all Australian governments as signatories to the National Strategy for Conservation of Australia's Biological Diversity (1996), and the National Forest Policy Statement (1992).
The systematic development of a comprehensive adequate and representative reserve system rests on a scientific framework, with mapping methods that reflect biodiversity in the landscape.
The scientific framework has a series of fundamental components:
- Maintenance and refinement of the bioregional framework for Australia and regular updates on the extent of protected areas;
- Development of nationally agreed approaches to assessing the status of Australia's biological diversity using the bioregional framework.
- Development of nationally agreed guidelines for prioritising biodiversity values to be protected, including aspirational targets for achieving comprehensiveness and representativeness in the development of the National Reserve System;
- Ongoing refinement in our approaches to the assessment the status of Australia's biodiversity, reviewing the impacts of threatening processes such as climate change and assessing the potential contribution of individual properties to the development of the National Reserve System;
- Development of national standards for the application of protection mechanisms and the capture of spatial data and related attributes for inclusion in the Collaborative Australian Protected Area Database;
- Development of national standards for the effective management of protected areas and monitoring and reporting frameworks; and
- Development and maintenance of biological inventory systems by the state and territory nature conservation agencies to provide core information on the nature and extent of biodiversity values in a bioregional context.
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