Native vegetation is a significant component of Australia’s terrestrial environment. Its conservation and management is central to the maintenance of biodiversity, land rehabilitation and ecologically sustainable development in Australia. In the absence of more detailed information, native vegetation is often used as a surrogate for biodiversity, making it a key component of natural resource management. Because of its importance, governments and the broader community wish to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of our native vegetation. This is reflected in many programs and policies at the National, State, regional and local level. Of particular relevance to catchment managers are the accredited natural resource management plans 8. These are being developed and implemented at the regional level across Australia, through the extended program of the Natural Heritage Trust and the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP).

Native vegetation is usually managed within the broader context of natural resource management and contributes substantially to environmental, economic and social objectives. In planning for vegetation management, it is therefore important that the full suite of values is considered as well as the desirability of achieving multiple benefits such as supporting regional communities, enabling sustainable production, enhancing biodiversity, reducing greenhouse emissions, arresting salinity and improving water quality at the landscape scale. In order to manage native vegetation sustainably, regional planning needs to continue to draw on the most up-to-date thinking. This guide is pivotal in encapsulating the learnings to date at the catchment and regional scale, as well as providing sign-posts to further information.

Native vegetation ecosystems are highly complex, living systems that can have a powerful influence on the physical properties, interactions and dynamics of a catchment or region. Native vegetation can influence regional climate, catchment hydrology, soil fertility and agricultural productivity, as well as providing habitat for a diverse range of native plant and animal species. As a consequence, the sustainable management of native vegetation can be a complex activity that involves a diverse range of knowledge and expertise including sophisticated science and technologies. This guide is written to allow the potential complexity of Natural Resource Management (NRM) to be broken down to a certain level for ease of communication and to help ensure the delivery of practical management outcomes.