Conservation values & challenges

Western Port has outstanding natural values, including a Ramsar wetland of international importance. Challenges to these values include rapid urbanisation, port development and climate change.

Conservation values

International conservation significance:

• Western Port, an area of great biological diversity due to its unusually wide range of habitat types. These range from deep channels to seagrass meadows, mangroves, saltmarsh and melaleuca thickets. It supports a large number of marine invertebrates and about 65% of Victoria’s bird species.
• Western Port is listed under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as waterfowl habitat (Ramsar Convention). Many of the migratory birds using the area are listed under international agreements, including JAMBA, CAMBA and the Bonn Agreement.

National conservation significance:

• French Island, especially the national park area, which is relatively undisturbed and provides a continuous range of fox-free habitats.
• Many significant indigenous plant species and communities, including rare, threatened and vulnerable species, such as the endangered Southern Brown Bandicoot.
• Numerous sites of geomorphological significance.
• Sites of zoological significance, including breeding colonies of the Little Penguin, Koala, Australian Fur Seal, Hooded Plover and Short-tailed Shearwater.

Regional conservation significance:

• Regionally important remnant indigenous vegetation in small reservations and on private land.
• Highly scenic landscape values and sites of historic importance.

Sustainable development challenges

Human pressures on the biosphere reserve include:

• Pollution and waste
• Poor water quality in rivers and streams
• Land degradation
• Loss of indigenous vegetation
• Introduction of terrestrial and marine pest organisms
• Impacts of climate change (storm surge, coastal inundation and erosion; inland flooding; increased fire risk; threats to human health, water supplies and infrastructure; and pressure on biodiversity)
• Disruption to marine habitat due to coastal erosion and unhealthy waterways, causing loss of seagrass and fish
• Rapid urban expansion, causing loss of farmland, coastal landscapes and vegetation
• Port development
• Impacts from industrial and tourism activities

Further information

• Stage 1 Nomination to UNESCO
• Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere Reserve References
• Western Port Seagrass Partnership

 

Mangrove regrowth and diverse vegetation at Woolleys Beach, near Crib Point in Western Port. This remnant vegetation has been undisturbed since European settlement. Images © Cecelia Witton

Royal Spoonbills in Western Port. Image © Cecelia Witton