Biodiversity Strategy - Gosford City Council - NSW Government

associated with setting targets such as the JANIS criteria (minimum 15%) and inherent trade
offs. For example, the report notes the need to consider what we want to conserve and what
degree of reliability we will adopt in terms of conservation protection. To increase the reliability,
increased reserved or protected lands will be required.
Whittle et. al. (2004) note that expectations and reliability are social not ecological judgements
and that explicit tradeoffs are required among social values; the comprehensive planning
process needs to make these trade-offs transparent. For this reason there is a clear need to
involve the community in a process that makes costs, benefits and uncertainties transparent
(p49 Whittle et. al. 2004). Also the best available information, including that of species experts,
and sound local knowledge must be used. Fauna models are discussed further under Section
7.4.3.
A - 5.6.4
Local Corridor Mapping
Draft corridor mapping was prepared for Gosford in c.1999 that identified primary and
secondary areas in the coastal parts of the City. A further draft has been prepared based on
local scale vegetation mapping (Bell 2004), parcel size, conservation and other landuse
zonings, riparian areas and proximity to other vegetated areas. It also considered a habitat
model for the Yellow-bellied Glider (Hawkins 2004). Where adequate vegetated areas no longer
exist areas are mapped as high priority for restoration and replanting.
Consideration was given to whether the use of the regional fauna habitat models (Whittle et. al.
2004) could be used to support the Gosford corridor mapping but they were considered to be
too broad and inaccurate to be a major determinate for corridors. Also habitat and possible
corridor requirements for these species varies greatly (such as for the Spotted-tailed Quoll).
Conclusions
The diversity of terrestrial plants, animals and ecosystems makes Gosford City a richly
biodiverse area. The high number of endangered ecological communities and species however
presents many management challenges. Resources such as local scale mapping assists
Council in setting strategic planning priorities, especially to conserve state and regionally
significant vegetation. However, effective biodiversity conservation requires other factors to be
considered, especially the connectivity and condition of bushland areas and wildlife corridors.
The use of ‘umbrella’ species is recommended to determine broad conservation objectives and
strategic objectives, as is obtaining further information on old growth areas and vegetation
condition. An emphasis should be given to retaining corridor linkages and hollow bearing trees
and to restoring degraded bushland.
Biodiversity - Technical Report Page 125