Modification and destruction of breedingModification and destruction of breeding habitat

Modification and destruction of breeding habitat

• Clearance of Abbott’s booby breeding habitat has essentially ceased, and almost all habitat is within Christmas Island National Park.
• Wind turbulence is exacerbated downwind from clearings, with negative impacts on breeding boobies and their habitat.
• Rehabilitation of old mining fields has proceeded slowly and there are still a number of sites adjacent to critical breeding sites requiring urgent attention.
• One of these mining fields, ranked fourth highest in order of priority for rehabilitation, has been taken over as the site of the Immigration Reception and Processing Centre.
• Exotic weeds are in many old mine sites and may pose a risk to adjacent rainforest and the success of rehabilitation. Implementing the Weed Management Strategy will address this.
• It is not known how many years it will take before rehabilitation will have an effect on the breeding success of Abbott’s booby.
• It is not known whether current rehabilitation practices are benefiting Abbott’s booby, and which procedures are the most effective; feedback to effect best practice rehabilitation at each site is essential (Christmas Island National Park Management Plan Prescription 7.2h).
• Development of a wind turbulence model would provide guidance for rehabilitation of mining fields and may provide a means to assess the effectiveness of mining field rehabilitation.
• Rapid implementation of the CIRRP focussing on the priority sites detailed in Table 2 of the Christmas Island National Park Management Plan (Environment Australia 2002) will provide significant long-term benefits to the recovery of Abbott’s booby.
• Under the new administrative arrangements for the phosphate conservation levy, it is important that the legislative requirements of the lease are met and priorities for the CIRRP remain focussed on Abbott’s booby.
• The mining schedule is currently being renegotiated. PAN should be involved in these discussions and the new agreement should not compromise the ability of the CIRRP revegetation schedule to meet the legislative requirements of the Abbott’s Booby Recovery Plan or Christmas Island National Park Management Plan (Prescription 7.3g).