Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00777:body:0:p11
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00777
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 29060–32223

of the Painted Honeyeater occurs across a wide range of land tenures, including on freehold land, travelling stock routes and reserves, publicly owned forests and state reserves, and national parks. It is important that suitable habitat is retained and that any enhancement and protection measures target these productive sites.

    When considering habitat loss, alteration or degradation to habitat in any part of
    the Painted Honeyeater's range, including in areas where the species 'may occur',
    surveys for occupancy at the appropriate times of the year and identifying preferred foraging species are an important tool in refining understanding of the area's relative importance for Painted Honeyeaters. In addition, it is also important to note that Painted Honeyeaters opportunistically use areas depending on the occurrence of eucalypt flowering and mistletoe flowering/fruiting. This means that areas that constitute   habitat critical to the survival might not have birds in any one given year. This pattern    of habitat use means that both recent survey data and historical records need to              be considered when assessing the relative importance of a local area or region for Painted Honeyeaters.

    Whenever possible, habitat critical to the survival of the species should not be destroyed or modified. Actions that have indirect impacts on habitat critical to the survival should be minimised and adequately mitigated (e.g. noise and light pollution). Actions that compromise adult and juvenile survival should also be avoided, for example, the transmission and introduction of diseases, and actions that might increase predation threat from both native and introduced predators. Actions should not be assessed in isolation and consideration must be given to existing and future activities that may impact the species to ensure conservation outcomes on a landscape scale are achieved.

    Actions that remove habitat critical to the survival would interfere with the recovery of the Painted Honeyeater and reduce the area of occupancy of the species. It is important to retain both breeding and foraging habitats described above. If removal of habitat critical to the survival cannot be avoided or mitigated, then an offset should be provided.

                       2.1 Historical causes of decline

             Habitat loss and degradation have been the key drivers of declines in the abundance           of the Painted Honeyeater. Much of its breeding habitat has been cleared or has                            been reduced to ageing, widely-spaced trees, particularly in box-ironbark and boree
             woodlands of New South Wales and Victoria. Its non-breeding habitat also continues          to be cleared for agriculture (Barea 2008a). Some acacia and casuarina woodlands
             (e.g. brigalow and buloke) in which the species occurs, have been heavily cleared and
             degraded to the extent that they are now nationally endangered ecological communities (Department of the Environment 2015a; Garnett et al. 2011).

             2.1 Current threatening processes
             Habitat loss is the