Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00153:body:0:p24
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00153
Segment Type: other
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Character Range: 65331–68396

larger scales, the conservation status of many flora and fauna species depends on the network of habitat available to support their populations. Conversely, highly-mobile fauna such as flying foxes and birds can be key seed dispersers for many rainforest trees and shrubs. Many of the biodiversity benefits of protecting and restoring patches of native vegetation and their component species and structures are tied up in the connectivity between them; thus, the landscape connectivity matrix is important.
Connectivity can be enhanced through the restoration of physically intergraded, adjoining systems, and/or dispersed patches providing stepping-stones across the landscape. Stepping stones (including small clumps of native vegetation) can facilitate movement and dispersal of some flora and fauna species between habitat patches as effectively as contiguous corridors (Doerr et al. 2010). The position of patches in the landscape is important for improved management, as is the proximity of smaller remnants to larger remnants, and conserving the habitat values and functionality of corridors or 'stepping stones' for fauna and flora.
The concept of connectivity is slightly unusual for Littoral Rainforest which occurs as a series of naturally disjunct and localised stands, on a range of landforms which have been influenced by coastal processes including dunes and flats, headlands and sea cliffs. Patches of Littoral Rainforest along the eastern coast of Australia has been significantly reduced and fragmented, primarily as a result of coastal development and other anthropogenic activities. Thus, maintaining and enhancing the 'stepping stone' connectivity between remaining patches, and increasing patch size and habitat quality, will be critical to the ongoing persistence of this ecological community.

3.2      Patch size
Across the full range of Littoral Rainforest, many patches of remaining vegetation are too small to meet the condition thresholds for the ecological community. However, patches of all sizes are critical to the connectivity issue. The minimum patch size threshold for Littoral Rainforest is 0.1 ha. However, even very small or degraded patches that do not meet EPBC Act listing thresholds may provide connectivity between other patches, making them critical for the ongoing viability of the ecological community. Whilst small patches of native vegetation are often insufficient on their own to support viable species populations within them, they act as critical ecological linkages between large, ecologically viable areas. Yet, despite the important connectivity role these small patches play in the landscape, they face greater pressures, particularly from natural disturbance. The edge effects are significantly worse in these patches as their small size makes resilience and robustness difficult to achieve, and raises the likelihood of isolated negative impacts, such as weed invasion and feral animals degrading the patch to such an extent that it loses its ability to operate as a functioning component of the landscape.