The biodiversity of the region faces challenges associated with addressing and reversing continued land clearing, changing land use and climate change stresses. Aboriginal people have a deep connection with the land or Country, which is central to their spiritual identity. This connection remains despite the many Aboriginal people who no longer live on their land. Aboriginal people describe the land as sustaining and comforting, fundamental to their health, their relationships and their culture and identity. This connection is inclusive of plants and fauna.

Biodiversity is a compound word derived from the term “biological diversity”. It refers to all the variety of life that can be found on Earth (plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms) as well as to the communities that they form and the habitats in which they live across our land, rivers, coast and ocean. It includes the diversity of their genetic information, the habitats and ecosystems within which they live, and their connections with other life forms and the natural world.

Protecting Victoria’s Environment – Biodiversity 2037 is Victoria’s 20-year plan for the future of Victoria’s biodiversity. The Biodiversity 2037 Implementation Cycle reflects the key implementation stages within and across this 20-year timeframe. These are:

• The strategy itself (Biodiversity 2037) and its review after 20 years.
• The enabling environment and planning process, including work that the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning does to provide tools and systems, regulations and standards; access to land; collaborative planning and so on.
• Everyone undertaking actions that contribute to the targets of Biodiversity 2037 – this includes all the contributions of individuals, community groups, Traditional Owners, non-government organisations and government agencies.
• Monitoring, evaluating, reporting and improving how we do things. This embeds continuous improvement into planning and action.

DELWP’s Biodiversity Response Planning describes the collective cross-tenure biodiversity vision for an area of land or waters, and the five-yearly pledges (i.e. contributors’ statements of intent) towards the statewide targets.

DELWP’s BRP Fact Sheets provide information for many (but not all) landscapes across Victoria, containing general information on the key values and threats in each area. The fact sheets also include Strategic Management Prospects (SMP) which models biodiversity values such as species habitat distribution, landscape-scale threats and highlights the most cost-effectiveness action for specific locations.

For more information on threatened ecological communities and threatened species under the EPBC Act, see Relevant Biodiversity Documents below.

Under the Biodiversity Theme in the Corangamite Regional Catchment Strategy are two Sub-themes:

A healthy natural environment provides vital life-sustaining services for humans, and underpins many of the productive activities that generate value for the Corangamite community. The region’s diverse and unique mix of plants, animals, soils, seas and waterways function together as ecosystems, which in turn meet some of humans’ most basic needs – provisions such as clean air and water, productive soils, natural pest control, pollination, flood mitigation and carbon sequestration. Ecosystems also provide us with food, raw materials for production (such as timber, pastures and fertilisers), genetic resources and pharmaceuticals, while contributing to waste decomposition and detoxification. The term ‘natural capital’ is often used to describe the resources provided by nature – minerals, soil, water, ecosystem services, and all living things from which we derive material or financial value. Biodiverse ecosystems are the core component of natural capital.