Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002:front:0:p61
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 176826–179856

implementation of a park strategy for the conservation of threatened species and threatened ecological communities, including actions in recovery plans for relevant species
        (b)      identification of other significant species (e.g. indicator and culturally significant species) and implementation of specific management prescriptions for these species
        (c)       conducting survey and monitoring programmes to address knowledge gaps for significant species.

Rainforest – An-ngarre

Outcomes

    * The abundance of significant species is increased (where possible and appropriate) or maintained

    * The extent of rainforest is maintained

Performance indicators

    * Abundance of significant species

    * Area of rainforest

Background

'We've got to stop late fires – protect anbinik.'

          Traditional owner

Rainforest in Kakadu occurs in small, isolated patches scattered throughout the park, taking up less than three per cent of the park area, it is distinct from the surrounding savannah woodland and floodplain vegetation. Depending on the availability of water, rainforest may be wet, spring-fed or dry forest. It is structurally diverse, ranging from tall forests over 30 metres in height in the stone country to deciduous thickets often only two or three metres in height in coastal areas.

The stone country supports a high proportion of Kakadu's rainforest, where it occurs scattered across the gorges and cliffs and often dominated by the large evergreen tree Allosyncarpia ternata (Anbinik). This tree has persisted since ancient times and is a primitive relative of our present-day eucalypts. It is found only in Kakadu's stone country and the Arnhem Land Plateau, where it grows to become the largest tree in those areas. Anbinik forms shady canopies and provides cool refuge for a range of animals. The rugged topography in the stone country has provided micro-environments and areas of refuge from climate change and other impacts, and this has contributed to the high diversity of species found in rainforest there.

Coastal rainforest in Kakadu is relatively drought tolerant and has a patchy distribution around moist places along the coast and river banks and on the margins of floodplains. It comprises a mix of plants from the distant past when northern Australia had a wetter climate and rainforests were widespread, and more recent arrivals from Indo-Malay rainforests during drier periods when sea levels were much lower than today.

Rainforests provide a cool and shady refuge for people and wildlife, and provide many food and other resources of value to Bininj/Mungguy, including yams and fruits such as native plums. Fruit-eating birds and flying foxes play a vital role in linking plants in these isolated pockets by dispersing pollen and seeds.

Values and condition

Rainforest within Kakadu:

    * offers a marked ecosystem contrast to Kakadu's spatially dominant landscape, the lowland woodlands, and contributes a set of very different species to the overall