Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00153:body:0:p5
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00153
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 12069–15204

long-term survival in nature are maximised. A major focus of this Recovery Plan is to address threats affecting Littoral Rainforest. It is also intended to support the involvement of Traditional Owners in the protection and management of Country and to support decision making for environmental regulation. Importantly, under Section 139(1)b of the EPBC Act, the Minister "must not act inconsistently with ... a recovery plan" when approving referred activities. Also, under Section 268, "A Commonwealth agency must not take any action that contravenes a recovery plan or threat abatement plan."
This Recovery Plan is not intended to provide a comprehensive literature review of all of the available information for Littoral Rainforest. Rather, it includes the minimum information necessary to support funding and on-ground implementation of actions that support the recovery of Littoral Rainforest. The Recovery Plan includes the key requirements for a recovery plan under the EPBC Act. The Recovery Plan draws on and complements the information provided in the Commonwealth Listing Advice on Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia and the Commonwealth Conservation Advice on Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia on the Species Profile and Threats Database pages at: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/sprat.pl.

1.1      Community description
Littoral Rainforest is comprised of a complex of wet or monsoon tropical to warm temperate rainforests and coastal vine thickets varying in structure, dominant species leaf size and deciduousness (Webb 1959). Littoral Rainforest differs from other types of rainforest (such as lowland or upland rainforest) in its location; it is typically located within two kilometres of the coast or adjacent to a large salt water body, such as an estuary. The unifying feature of Littoral Rainforest is the adaptation of the rainforest and vine thicket community to the often harsh coastal environments through adaption to the saline conditions delivered via salt-laden winds, saline water tables and occasional inundation.
Littoral Rainforest is naturally distributed as a series of disjunct and localised stands occurring on a range of landforms derived from coastal processes, including dunes and flats, cheniers, berms, cobbles, headlands, scree, sea cliffs, coastal knolls, marginal bluffs, spits, deltaic deposits, coral rubble and islands. As a result, the ecological community is not associated with a particular soil type and can occur on a variety of geological substrata. Littoral Rainforest often forms mosaics, or transitions into, other rainforest communities on its landward side, and can merge with heath, sclerophyll forest, swamp or woodland vegetation (Keith 2004).
Littoral Rainforest is distributed across warm temperate, subtropical and tropical climate zones. The diversity of plant taxa (particularly canopy species) and the species composition within Littoral Rainforest changes on the macro-scale throughout the range, driven primarily by changes in temperature. Typically, species diversity declines in