1     Introduction

Before European settlement Littoral Rainforest existed as a semi-continuous group of patches distributed along the east coast of Australia. However, Littoral Rainforest has been significantly reduced since this time as a result of extensive coastal development and land clearing, weed invasion, recreational disturbance, feral animal browsing/grazing, fire and natural disturbance. Patches of Littoral Rainforest now have limited distributions and are highly fragmented throughout their range. At the time of listing, there were thought to be over 1400 separate patches of Littoral Rainforest within the areas of the defined ecological community, with a total mapped area of only 18 000 hectares (ha) (TSSC 2008).

Littoral Rainforest was listed as Critically Endangered under the Australian Government’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) in 2008. Littoral Rainforest provides habitat for over 70 threatened species and it provides an important buffer to coastal erosion and wind damage.

Littoral Rainforest is typically made up of rainforest and vine thickets, and occurs close to the coast and on offshore islands. The distribution of the ecological community extends from northern Queensland southwards to eastern Victoria. Littoral Rainforest occurs as a series of naturally disjunct and localised stands, on a range of landforms which have been influenced by coastal processes including dunes and flats, headlands and sea cliffs.

Although Littoral Rainforest is highly fragmented, it is also a relatively resilient ecological community. Littoral Rainforest can still maintain the features of a functioning ecosystem even after some disturbances, such as storm events and weed invasion. Nevertheless, given the range of threats impacting upon it, long term protection will be required to ensure the persistence of Littoral Rainforest into the future. Working with local land managers to implement favourable land use and management practices at sites containing this ecological community will be an essential component of broader recovery efforts.

The primary purpose of this Recovery Plan is to provide the research and management actions necessary to stop the decline, and support the recovery, of Littoral Rainforest so that the chances of its long-term survival in nature are maximised. A major focus of this Recovery Plan is to address threats affecting Littoral Rainforest. It is also intended to support the involvement of Traditional Owners in the protection and management of Country and to support decision making for environmental regulation. Importantly, under Section 139(1)b of the EPBC Act, the Minister “must not act inconsistently with ... a recovery plan” when approving referred activities. Also, under Section 268, “A Commonwealth agency must not take any action that contravenes a recovery plan or threat abatement plan.”