PART FOUR
STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
4.2 LAND AND BIODIVERSITY
LB0 Introduction
Key Findings
• Despite improved understanding of environmental issues and
processes, the policies and initiatives implemented in recent
decades, and extensive investment in the environment, the
condition of Victoria’s land and biodiversity has continued to
decline – Victoria has the highest proportion of sub-regions
in Australia considered to be in poor condition. A lack of coordinated
data collection and reporting arrangements limit the
ability to report on individual land and biodiversity resources at
a statewide level.
• The study of climate change impacts on Victorian land
and biodiversity is in its infancy and there is a high level of
uncertainty about both the nature of climate change and its
likely effects on Victoria’s flora and fauna. Natural ecosystems
are highly vulnerable to 1.5–2°C of warming. Climate change
is likely to drive changes in land use that will require political
and managerial decisions about the relative values of terrestrial
systems and uses of land.
• Victoria’s historic use of land has left a legacy of highly cleared
and fragmented native vegetation over much of the State.
Good quality, relatively intact native vegetation only remains
in areas that have not been extensively modified. Native
grasslands are Victoria’s most depleted and most endangered
vegetation classes; however, Victorians continue to develop
and modify grassland ecosystems. High levels of vegetation
clearing may constitute the crossing of an ecological threshold,
beyond which rapid change occurs and ecosystems may not
recover.
• Human activities continue to cause declines in the condition of
native flora and fauna. Future decisions will reflect the choices
of Victorians about the attributes of land and biodiversity that
they most value. Continuing population growth, urbanisation
and consumption may hinder achievement of land and
biodiversity management objectives. The high degree of
urbanisation of the Victorian population means that the
environmental impacts of societal lifestyle patterns may go
largely unrecognised.
• A lack of co-ordinated data collection and reporting
arrangements limits the ability to assess and report on the
condition of Victoria’s land and biodiversity at statewide level.
• Victoria’s current legislative and institutional framework for land
and biodiversity conservation has been developed over many
years and is in need of reform and consolidation. However,
Victoria has in place a range of structures and processes that
will form the basis of future responses to land and biodiversity
concerns.
• A range of policy options, including regulation and
enforcement, market-based instruments, education and
research, is needed to engage a broad spectrum of Victorians
in management and protection of land and biodiversity
resources.
Victorian land
and biodiversity assets
Victoria, a land area of approximately 22.7
million ha with a coastline of 2,000 km1, is
a complex array of landforms produced
over a period of 520 million years.
The landscape has been substantially
modified by human activities. Much of the
recognisable shape of Victoria was formed
during the last 150 million years. During
this period the coastal hinterland was
uplifted to form the Great Dividing Range,
and the area to the north-east formed the
Murray basin2. Most recently, volcanic
eruptions have shaped the Victorian
landscape. Within the last two million
years, about 400 volcanoes produced
extensive basalt flows over much of
western Victoria3.
These physical characteristics underpin a
diversity of landforms and soil types that
allow Victoria’s land area to support a
greater range of broad ecosystem types
than any other area of similar size in the
rest of Australia4. These ecosystems range
from alpine woodlands to dry Mallee
grasslands and include inland waters,
coastal environments, wetlands, heaths
and grasslands.
Victoria is classified into 28 bioregions
(see Figure LB0.1) that capture the
patterns and ecological characteristics
in the landscape. Bioregions are the
broadscale mapping units for biodiversity
planning and may extend over State
boundaries. Many of Victoria’s bioregions
have been heavily cleared, leaving around
45% of Victoria’s original vegetation cover.
Four of Australia’s five most cleared
bioregions occur in Victoria5.
Within these broad bioregions, Victoria
has nearly 220 ecological vegetation
classes (EVCs) with a further 424 EVC
mosaics, complexes and aggregates.
EVCs are a means of classifying native
vegetation through a combination of
species composition, life forms and
ecological characteristics, and through an
association with particular environmental
attributes such as soil type and rainfall.
EVCs may occur over more than one
bioregion.
Victoria has a diverse indigenous terrestrial
biodiversity including some 3,140 species
of vascular plants, 900 lichens, 750
mosses and liverworts, 111 mammals,
447 birds, 133 reptiles and 33 amphibians.
Victoria also has a large number of
invertebrates, fungi and algae species,
many of which are yet to be described.
Terrestrial ecosystems provide important
services to Victorians (see Part 1
Introduction for discussion of ecosystem
services). Healthy ecosystems support
production of food, fibre and timber, clean
air and water, and a regulated climate.
Healthy soils maintain fertility by cycling
nutrients and decomposing wastes.
Biodiversity is integral to ecosystem
function and also provides resources
for human use, such as compounds for
pharmaceutical use. Healthy land and
biodiversity are also important in their own
right as places for relaxation and sources
of cultural, spiritual and intellectual
satisfaction6. Degradation of land and
biodiversity resources limits delivery
of these services. Thus, maintaining
healthy ecosystems is essential for the
continued provision of services on which
all Victorians depend.
Ecosystem services are not specifically
valued in the economy and are public
goods, so there has been limited incentive
to conserve the ecosystems that provide
them. Recent development of markets
for ecosystem services in Victoria now
provides land owners with the opportunity
to derive income from the provision of
ecosystem services (see also Part 5 Living
Well Within Our Environment).
The global cost of environmental
damage and lost species has been
estimated at US$2.1–4.8 trillion annually7
(approximately A$2.2–5.1 trillion). The
costs of repairing degraded ecosystems
are difficult to estimate but are reflected
in the economic values of the services
provided by healthy ecosystems. The
annual value of four key environmental
services provided by native insects in
the USA (dung burial, pollination, pest
control and recreation, i.e. fishing, hunting,
bird watching) has been conservatively
estimated at US$57 billion8 (approximately
A$60 billion). Reduction in climate
regulation services is adding to climate
change from anthropogenic sources. The
economic and social costs of climate
change threaten a global economic
crisis worse than that produced by the
Depression of the 1930s9.
Terrestrial ecosystems are intimately
connected to the rivers and streams that
flow over them, the coastal areas and
the marine environment. The condition
of terrestrial systems has implications for
these aquatic systems, explored in Part
4.3 Inland Waters and Part 4.4 Coasts,
Estuaries and the Sea.
Prior to European settlement Victoria was
home to Aboriginal people who developed
an intimate connection with the land over
thousands of years. The land continues
to hold great cultural significance for
Victoria’s indigenous people. Aboriginal
people modified landscape to provide for
their needs by practices such as ‘firestick
farming’, or burning used to manipulate
the plant and animal species composition
of an area and facilitate hunting10. At
the time of European settlement the
connection of indigenous people to the
land was not recognised and all land was
declared as belonging to the Crown. Land
was sold to settlers, becoming private
property. Clearing of the land, which was
considered to ‘improve’ it, was a condition
of ownership.
Public land now occupies approximately
39% of Victoria11 and is used for
biodiversity conservation purposes,
timber harvesting, recreation and water
catchment. State forest accounts for
approximately 14% of Victoria and is
concentrated in the east of the State.
Approximately 1.9 million ha of State
forest (60% of total State forest area) is
available for timber harvesting. Public land
allocated to nature conservation occupies
approximately 17% of Victoria, mostly
in National and State Parks, Wilderness
Areas and Nature Conservation Reserves12
(see section LB2: Contemporary land use
change).
The remaining 61% of Victorian land
is privately owned and much of this is
farmed. Agriculture is the predominant
land use in Victoria, occupying 13.25
million ha or approximately 58% of the
total area. It contributes $8.7 billion to the
Victorian economy13, accounting for 3.5%
of Victoria’s Gross State Product14 and
approximately 35% of Victoria’s export
income (see Part 3.2 Water Resources).
The key agricultural products are beef,
dairy, wool, grain crops, and fruit and
vegetable crops. Agricultural production
occurs mainly in the flatter and more
accessible areas in western and northern
Victoria (see section LB2: Contemporary
land use change, Indicator LB9 Land use
types in Victoria). Melbourne occupies less
than 1% of Victoria’s land area but about
75% of Victorians live in metropolitan
Melbourne.
Victoria’s agriculture was established
initially on the most fertile soils and
for the most part is rain fed. However,
agricultural production is supported
by ongoing additions of synthetic
fertilisers and, in some areas, irrigation.
Fertilisers, pesticides and the fossil fuels
from which many of these are derived,
have traditionally been low-cost inputs.
However, the price of fertiliser has
increased strongly during the past two
years in response to global supply and
demand factors as well as an increase
in the price of fossil fuels. Nitrogenous
fertilisers are also associated with
emission of the greenhouse-intensive
gas, nitrous oxide. Continued reliance on
these inputs to support productivity gains
in agriculture is becoming decreasingly
sustainable, both environmentally
and economically. Continued gains
in agricultural productivity, supported
by artificial soil fertilisation, appears to
be masking ongoing and cumulative
environmental degradation.
Objectives
• To maintain and enhance Victoria’s land
and biodiversity assets
• To increase the extent and improve the
condition of Victoria’s native vegetation
• To improve the conservation status of
Victoria’s native species
• To retain, or, where required, reestablish,
robust landscapes that buffer
against the impacts of climate change
• To ensure sustainable land
management under a range of land
uses
• To ensure that land use changes do not
place further pressure on biodiversity
and that changes produce a net positive
impact on biodiversity
Overall Condition
Condition of land
There is no simple measure of the
condition of land per se; however, Victoria
has the highest proportion (48%) of
sub-bioregions in Australia considered
to be in poor landscape condition. This
is assessed on the basis of the extent
and condition of native vegetation, the
associated increase in threatened species,
and threats to ecological function such
as salinity15. The areas of poor landscape
condition correspond to areas of
extensively cleared and fragmented native
vegetation.
Native vegetation is fragmented over
approximately two-thirds of Victoria
and is under continuing pressure from
intensification of agricultural production
and urban expansion. Native vegetation
management policy was substantially
reformed in 2002, with the aim of
achieving a ‘Net Gain’ of native vegetation
through reduced clearing, better offsetting
of permitted clearing, protection of existing
vegetation and biodiverse revegetation
activities. This goal has not yet been
achieved. Although vegetation gains have
exceeded losses on public land, native
vegetation continues to be lost on private
land. Victoria continues to lose native
vegetation at a rate of approximately 4,000
ha per year16.
Land use in Victoria varies markedly
between public and private tenures. Public
land is dominated by parks and State
forests, while private land is dominated by
agricultural and urban uses. Private land is
changing towards a broader mix of uses
in response to demographic change, and
the intensity of agricultural production is
increasing.
The susceptibility of Victorian soils to
structural decline and erosion varies
across the State with soil type and
topography. The risk of water erosion is
generally greater on steep, mountainous
land in eastern Victoria, while wind erosion
is associated with the flatter land and
sandier soils of the Mallee and northern
Wimmera in western Victoria. Management
of soil to reduce erosion has been a
feature of Victorian cropping systems over
the past 20–30 years. Susceptibility to soil
structural decline is widespread but the
risk can be minimised by the management
of soil for biological activity and organic
matter accumulation.
Changed vegetation structure has altered
the hydrology of Victorian landscapes,
increasing drainage to groundwater and
resulting in salinisation and acidification
of soils in some regions. The extent of
dryland salinity is considered to have
peaked at around 240,000 ha due
to a combination of improved land
management and prolonged low rainfall.
The extent of accelerated acidification,
however, is unknown and potentially
expanding.
Condition of biodiversity
Assessment of the condition of Victoria’s
biodiversity is set against the backdrop of
a global crisis in biodiversity. The Victorian
Government’s recent Green Paper, Land
and biodiversity in a time of climate change
(p. 3), states that:
“There is increasing scientific evidence
and consensus that the world is facing a
biodiversity crisis.
The first Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment unambiguously showed that
humans have changed ecosystems over
the past 50 years in a way unprecedented
in any other period of human history. It
concluded that nearly two-thirds of the
critical services nature provides to humans
are in decline, and warned we face even
greater loss of biodiversity over the next 50
years.
In 2007, the United Nations Environment
Program again highlighted the crisis in
biodiversity. In its fourth Global Environment
Outlook report it warned we are either on
the cusp or have already entered a period
of mass extinction the like of which has
not been seen since the demise of the
dinosaurs. It warns that climate change will
lead to the first wave of mass extinctions
caused by humans”.
In some parts of Victoria, specifically the
well-vegetated and mountainous eastern
highlands and the Mallee country in the
north-west, ecosystems remain relatively
intact, with vegetation condition and
quality considered to be high. However,
even in the relatively intact landscapes
managed by Parks Victoria, the condition
of biodiversity is variable due to previous
land use and disturbance such as logging
and grazing as well as the impact of a
range of current and ongoing threats
from invasive species (weeds and pest
animals), altered hydrology, inappropriate
fire regimes, grazing pressure and
fragmentation.
The bioregions most suitable for urban
development and agriculture, including
the Victorian Volcanic Plains and Riverina,
have not only suffered the greatest loss of
vegetation, but the quality of the remaining
vegetation is amongst the lowest in the
State. Furthermore, these regions are
characterised by high levels of vegetation
fragmentation and low connectivity,
which, combined with the small size and
irregular shapes of much of the remnant
vegetation, further limits the ecological
functionality of these landscapes. The
extensive and ongoing clearing of the
once-widespread native grasslands
and grassy woodlands, in particular,
has resulted in these ecosystems being
classified as endangered.
Some 157 animal species are considered
threatened in Victoria, while a further 24
have become extinct. In addition, 778
plant species are listed as threatened
in Victoria, with 51 extinctions17. Some
populations of threatened species
continue to decline, while others appear
to be recovering. There is a large number
of species whose population trend is
inconclusive, unclear or variable. These
species require ongoing monitoring.
Considerable re-establishment of habitat
and restoration of environmental flows will
be required to significantly improve the
conservation status of many species and
regional ecosystems18.
Knowledge of the status of invertebrates is
extremely poor, hampering assessments
of conservation needs. Furthermore,
surveys of flora and fauna distributions
have declined over the past decade,
limiting the ability to track increases
or declines in species abundance or
changes to distribution.
Pest species, particularly weeds, continue
to establish in Victoria and pose a major
threat to biodiversity, landscape function,
primary production and landscape
aesthetics.
Pressures on Victorian
land and biodiversity
The choices that Victorians have made
about land use have produced a modified
landscape over much of Victoria. The
extent of modification is least in the
forested areas of eastern Victoria,
although the use of these ecosystems
for timber production and recreation
certainly creates disturbance. The greatest
modification has occurred in urban
areas, where topography is altered to
accommodate roads and buildings, and
land surfaces are paved to control run-off
and drainage and to facilitate transport.
Victoria’s agricultural land has also been
modified to suit the production of food and
fibre for the domestic and international
market.
All of Victoria’s ecosystems provide
services for nature and society; however,