Managing and Monitoring Threats to Native Plants and Communities

​​​The maintenance of Tasmania's rich and unique plant biodiversity is dependent on maintaining the ecological processes that support our species, vegetation types and their distributions in Tasmania. Any significant changes to the environment, which reduces the chances of survival, can be considered a threatening process. Such threats to Tasmania's plant biodiversity come in many varied forms - from slow-acting and widespread threats such as climate change and weed invasion through to fast-acting and localised threats like minor earthworks or firewood cutting. Threats may also be the result of direct human intervention such as from land clearing or as a result of indirect human intervention such as the incidental spread of plant pathogens on vehicles.​​

The Department addresses the management of threatening processes at a number of levels. Firstly, at the quarantine barrier where legislation and practical controls red​​uce the risk of new pests, weeds and diseases being introduced to the state. Should pests, weeds or diseases succeed in establishing in the state, NRE Tas has incursion response plans and processes in place.

Secondly, legislative controls, such as the Threaten​​ed Species Protection Act 1995 management plans and environmental impact review processes control human actions that may threaten plant species and communities.

Lastly, the Department is engaged in monitoring and research to identify and understand threatening process and provides practical management advice to la​​nd managers.

Managing Threats to Vegetation

Fire

• Parks & Wildlife Notesheet - Fire Flora & Fauna

Environmental Weeds

• Environmental Weeds
• Information about weed species

Pest and Diseases

• Phytophthora Root Rot Fungus
  
  

Monitoring Vegetation

• Vegetation Monitoring in Tasmania
• Native Vegetation Monitoring Strategy
  
  

Protecting Vegetation

A range of measures is required to effectively protect vegetation including in-situ measures such as the creation of areas set aside for the protection of vegetation and ex-situ measures such as a seed bank for insurance against extinction in the wild.

On Site (In-Situ) Prote​ction

To ensure the full range of vegetation and communities is protected requires that areas or publicly owned and privately owned land are set aside and protected and managed for conservation via a range of measures including perpetual reservation and land management agreements of various kinds.

• Private Land Conservation Program

Legal Measures to Protect Vegetation Commu​​nities and Species

• Land clearing controls in Tasmania (Forest Practices​ Authority)​
  
• Threatened Species Protection Act 1995
• Nature Conservation Act 2002
• Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999​