An alliance of local and national environment groups have called for a moratorium on land clearing across 810,000 hectares between Barrington Tops and Hawkesbury River.
The Barrington to Hawkesbury Climate Corridors Alliance report, released today, combines habitat suitability modelling and NSW government climate corridor mapping to identify 22 wildlife corridors essential for the survival of threatened species in face of climate change.
"Our research suggests that at least 22 threatened native fauna species will suffer substantial range contractions in the region and at least six species are at risk of extinction within the next 50 years," report author Paul Winn from the Hunter Community Environment Centre said.
The Barrington to Hawkesbury region is recognised as having international conservation significance. It encompasses the Myall Lakes and Hunter Estuary, listed under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and connects the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area in the south to the Barrington Tops World Heritage Area in the north.
Native bushland covers about 60 percent of the region, half of which is mapped as key fauna habitats, and more than a third is made up of ten endangered ecological communities of national environmental significance.
It is predicted that under a worst case climate change scenario, six fauna species within the corridor ( the Red-legged Pademelon, Yellow-bellied Glider, the Stephens Banded Snake, the Wallum Sedge Frog, the Giant Barred Frog, and the Red-crowned Toadlet) would have little or no suitable habitat remaining in the region in 2070.
The proposed corridor would act as "climate refugia" for existing species as well as those areas necessary for wildlife to move as the climate changes.
The alliance estimates that more than 7,000 hectares of native bushland in the region has been earmarked for "greenfield" urban development in the last decade.
In addition, about 6,500 hectares of bushland was cleared between 2008 and 2017, almost a third due to logging in lower Mid Coast local government area.
"Our proposal protects these climate refugia from further degradation and fragmentation and connects them with large-scale functioning wildlife corridors that span climatic gradients and enhance the capacity of populations to shift as the climate changes," Dr Winn said.
"If we are to provide the greatest chance for native species to survive the ravages of climate change, these connected habitats must be protected from further fragmentation and degradation.
"If we wish to minimise native species' extinction, climate refugia and identified Climate Corridors must be legally protected."
