Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01389:body:0:p83
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01389
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 233079–236229

this plan complies with Schedule 6(2) of the Regulations.
The Ecological Character Description for Pulu Keeling National Park Ramsar Site (Hale 2010) forms a baseline reference of the condition of the park at the time it was listed.
The Ramsar Information Sheet and Ecological Character Description for the Pulu Keeling National Park Ramsar site is available online at:
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/wetlands/ramsardetails.pl?refcode=46
The 2010 review of the Ecological Character Description identified a small number of knowledge gaps that are required to fully describe the site's ecological character to enable rigorous and defensible limits of acceptable change. Collection of information at the site is difficult, due to the remote location of the park, and difficulty of access. The review recommended a number of actions necessary to identify indicator species for monitoring and specific monitoring recommendations in relation to vegetation, invasive species, invertebrates, birds and marine species. These are further described in Section 3.3, Research and monitoring.
The Pulu Keeling National Park Ramsar site meets the following six Ramsar listing criteria:
Criterion 1: A wetland should be considered internationally important if it contains a representative, rare, or unique example of a natural or near-natural wetland type found within the appropriate biogeographic region.
North Keeling Island has never been permanently inhabited and this, coupled with the remote location of this site, has resulted in wetlands in near-natural condition. As such the park contains the best examples of coral, sandy and rocky shore wetland types in the bioregion.
Criterion 2: A wetland should be considered internationally important if it supports vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered species or threatened ecological communities.
The park supports three threatened species: Cocos buff-banded rail (Gallirallus philippensis andrewsi), listed as endangered under the EPBC Act and restricted to the Ramsar site (Parks Australia 2004); green turtle (Chelonia mydas); and hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), both listed as vulnerable under the EPBC Act and endangered under the IUCN Red List.
Criterion 3: A wetland should be considered internationally important if it supports populations of plant and/or animal species important for maintaining the biological diversity of a particular biogeographic region.
The park supports three endemic species: the Cocos buff-banded rail (Gallirallus philippensis andrewsi); the Cocos pandanus (Pandanus tectorius spp. cocosensis); and the Cocos angelfish (Centropyge joculator) which only occurs at Christmas and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Woodroffe and Berry 1994).
In a survey undertaken by James Cook University in March 2010 the island's gregory damselfish (Stegastes insularis) was sighted for the first time at North Keeling Island and at the southern atoll. The island gregory has limited distribution and may be considered endemic to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island (there is also a separate population or sub-species on Marcus Island in the Pacific Ocean)