Wetlands Centre accepts Guardian Role

We are fortunate to have a Key Biodiversity Area on our door step, the Cheetham and Altona KBA. Key Biodiversity Areas are ‘sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity’, in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. 

In 2016 twelve of the world’s leading nature conservation organizations launched an ambitious new partnership to identify, map, monitor and conserve the most important places for life on Earth. The area shown on the attached map, formerly an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA), meets several criteria and is recognised as the Cheetham and Altona KBA.

An assessment of the status, pressures and conservation response in each KBA is conducted each year by a KBA Guardian under the auspices of BirdLife Australia (BLA). The assessment period starts each Easter and is called the Easter Health Check (EHC). 

The Hobsons Bay Wetlands Centre (HBWC) has recently been appointed as the Guardian of this KBA, entrusted with the collection of data that will help determine national and global conservation priorities and actions. This is an important role, one that will help protect this significant area and its myriad species. 

Data collected by the Guardian is entered into the KBA Health Check data base and BLA uses that data to update the World Database on Key Biodiversity Areas. BLA and BirdLife International use the World Database to help determine national and global conservation priorities and actions. 

The health check involves entering statistics relating to surveys conducted in the KBA and reporting on the state of the habitat for each trigger species in the KBA. The Cheetham and Altona KBA has three trigger species: red-necked stints, chestnut teal and Pacific gulls. Other areas of assessment include current pressures on the KBA and conservation actions that are aimed to help protect the KBA. 

For the 2020 health check, the Guardian provided statistics generated by BLA bird surveys carried out in the KBA during the target period. But there are also opportunities to provide additional data from fauna and flora surveys conducted in the same time frame and within the KBA. These will be the subject of future activities by HBWC. 

The state of the KBA is the subject of liaison with the relevant land managers within the KBA but can, and will in the future, involve input from organisations such as conservation bodies, Friends Of groups, and universities.

Nick Olliff