National Recovery Plan for the Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia Ecological Community
269A
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I, MELISSA PRICE, Minister for the Environment, under subsection section 269A(2) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, herby make a recovery plan for the listed threatened ecological community specified below:
Listed Ecological Community
Recovery Plan
Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia
National Recovery Plan for the Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia Ecological Community
Dated this 15th day of February 2019
Melissa Price
Melissa Price
Minister for the Environment
This recovery plan will come into force on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislation.
The National Recovery Plan for the Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia Ecological Community is licensed by the Commonwealth of Australia for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence with the exception of the Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth of Australia, the logo of the agency responsible for publishing the report, content supplied by third parties, and any images depicting people. For licence conditions see:
This report should be attributed as ‘National Recovery Plan for the Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia Ecological Community Commonwealth of Australia 2019’.
The Department of the Environment and Energy is grateful to the organisations and individuals who contributed to or provided information for the preparation of the Recovery Plan and who were or are still involved in implementing conservation and management actions that benefit the Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia ecological community.
The Department acknowledges the effort provided by researchers and conservation experts, including academics, non-government organisations, Natural Resource Management organisations, Australian Government and State Government staff, and members of the public, who contributed to and provided advice on the Recovery Plan’s preparation. In particular, this extends to the participants of the workshop held to discuss and review the recovery plan and actions required.
Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners and Country
The Australian Government acknowledges Australia’s Traditional Owners and pays respect to Elders past and present. We acknowledge the deep spiritual, cultural and customary connections of Traditional Owners to the Australian land and sea country, including the Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia ecological community.
Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (New South Wales)
TSSC
Threatened Species Scientific Committee (Commonwealth)
VMA
Vegetation Management Act 1999 (Queensland)
Executive summary
The Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy has prepared this Recovery Plan to provide for the long term survival and protection of the Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia ecological community (hereafter referred to as Littoral Rainforest or the ecological community), listed as Critically Endangered under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
Littoral Rainforest was listed as Critically Endangered because its geographic distribution is severely fragmented and primarily consists of numerous small and disjunct patches, there are demonstrable threats impacting upon it and there have been very severe reductions in the integrity of the ecological community.
The key historic and ongoing threat to Littoral Rainforest is coastal development and, given its distribution, Littoral Rainforest is also highly susceptible to the interacting effects of climate change and sea level rise, both of which exacerbate the existing threats of habitat fragmentation and invasion by transformer weeds (Lavorel et al. 2015). Littoral Rainforest also continues to be reduced and fragmented by land clearance, weed invasion, recreational disturbance, animal browsing/grazing, fire and natural disturbance.
The objectives of the National Recovery Plan for the Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia Ecological Community (hereafter referred to as the Recovery Plan) are that by 2029:
The management actions necessary to stop the decline of the ecological community across its distribution are well understood and being implemented;
The known extent (area) of Littoral Rainforest has been maintained or extended;
The condition of the ecological community has been improved across its distribution; and
The chances of the long term persistence of Littoral Rainforest in nature have been maximised.
The Recovery Plan will be implemented through a series of hierarchical objectives, strategies and actions across both specific bioregions and the entire ecological community collectively. The key strategies designed to meet the objectives of the Recovery Plan are to:
Implement planning, regulatory policies and actions to protect Littoral Rainforest;
Implement management strategies and actions to reduce threats to Littoral Rainforest;
Improve and extend Littoral Rainforest through active restoration;
Engage with the broader public to increase awareness and community involvement in management and rehabilitation; and
Improve knowledge on the distribution and condition of Littoral Rainforest, and monitor and report on the status of the ecological community.
Critical to the success of these objectives is the implementation of active management through natural regeneration and restoration using best practice standards and systems (as set out in the ‘National Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration in Australia’ (SERA 2015)) to prevent further degradation of the remaining patches of Littoral Rainforest within the fragmented landscape, and to promote recovery within those degraded patches. Without active management, detrimental activities like coastal development and vegetation clearing, weed invasion, feral grazing, and recreational impacts will continue. Active management includes the use of assisted natural regeneration and revegetation techniques to increase the extent and condition of vegetation in the ecological community.