Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) is the national law under which species and ecological communities can be ‘listed’ as threatened. Listing relies on a threat assessment of scientific evidence against regulated criteria to determine eligibility and conservation status (e.g. Vulnerable, Endangered, etc.). If approved, a Conservation Advice is published and the threatened entity becomes a matter of national environmental significance (MNES).
Threatened ecological communities (TECs) are an effective way to conserve biodiversity and habitat (i.e. as compared to a single species). To date, the majority of listed TECs are terrestrial, with landscape-scale aquatic, coastal, or marine ecosystems mostly lacking (exceptions are: Giant Kelp Forests, Coastal Saltmarsh, Salt-wedge Estuaries). The EPBC Act provides an excellent, and legally enforceable, pathway to assist the protection, restoration, and resilience of estuaries and coastal marine ecosystems. However, it is currently vastly underutilised.
Benefits of listing a TEC include leveraging government funding for research and restoration. In addition, the Conservation Advice provides a foundational review and analysis of relevant scientific and research literature, along with priorities for research and conservation management actions. Importantly, listing provides regulatory protection from significant impacts. Newsflash!—listing begins with a public nomination and anyone can nominate.