Dr Bill Cotching, Rangelands NRM, WA - Developing industry partnerships towards biodiversity protection through the Pilbara Corridors Project

Bill Cotching

3,000 ha

50,000,000 ha

> 99 % of the Pilbara is not mined

Pilbara Corridors Connecting Country, Connecting People

Fortescue Catchment

Landscape connectivity

Habitat connectivity

Cultural connectivity

Evolutionary connectivity

Fortescue Catchment * Port Hedland

* Newman

* Carnarvon

Biodiversity Hot Spot

Fortescue Marsh

Hamersley refugia

Biodiversity Hot Spot

Pilbara Olive Python

Fortescue Marsh

Orange leaf-nosed bat

Mulgara

Bilby

Hamersley refugia

Why biodiversity ?

Nothing exists separately and permanently

in itself, but everything is part of the

interconnected flow of nature.

Intrinsic value

Cultural value

Productive value

Ecosystem services

Millstream Chichester

NP

Karijini NP

Mt Florance Millstream Chichester

NP

Coolawanyah

Mulga Downs

Karijini NP Roy Hill

Ethel Creek

Sylvania

Juna Downs

Hooley

Aboriginal

• Protect and improve existing

native vegetation,

• Manage threats to biodiversity,

Coordinated fire planning & management

Remote sensing of fire scars and vegetation change

Manage grazing pressure and control livestock access to areas of high biodiversity value

Fencing to mange grazing

Water points & grazing radii

Ecologically Sustainable Rangeland Management Plans assist pastoralists to manage connectivity on their properties

Targeted feral herbivore control

Large herbivores have serious impacts on biodiversity, culturally valued heritage sites, fences & stock watering points. They foul drainage lines and waterholes.

Prevent the spread of invasive weeds

Citic Pacific, RioTinto, BHP Petroleum, Onslow Salt, Fortescue Metals Group,

Roy Hill Iron Ore

Monitoring points to monitor change in vegetation extent and condition

Cattle on river

4 Wheel Drive

access

Feral donkeys

Intense fires

Prickly weeds

Activities to avoid carbon emissions and sequester carbon will be prioritised and implemented

Soil carbon: 25 t CO2-e ha-1 Soil carbon: 86 t CO2-e ha-1

Yindjibarndi Cultural Heritage and Conservation Co-ordination

Rebecca, Jessica, Alison

Kingsley, Michael, Chad,

Marc MacDonald

• Protect and improve existing

native vegetation,

• Manage threats to biodiversity,

Pilbara Corridors Connecting Country, Connecting People

Fortescue Catchment

‘The land does not lie;

It bears a record of what men write on it’

(WC Lowdermilk)