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FEATURE ARTICLE: ACCOUNTING FOR LAND CHANGES IN THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

INTRODUCTION

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is a globally significant area located in the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia. It extends for more than 2,300 kilometres along the north-eastern coast of Australia off the State of Queensland. It is the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, and is listed on the register of World Heritage sites. Threats to the condition or health of the reef include climate change, declining water quality (from catchment run off) and the loss of coastal habitats (from coastal development and fishing impacts). Many of these threats are the result of regional or global actions, beyond the boundaries of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

The GBR marine ecosystem is closely linked with the 28 terrestrial river catchments which drain into the sea in the area. These catchments cover over 38 million hectares, and have a population of over one million people. The development of Land Accounts provides a platform for the measurement of land. Accounting for land, particularly land cover, will be a common entry point for compilers of ecosystem accounts, due to the focus of ecosystem accounting on terrestrial ecosystems. Land cover provides a link to the production of ecosystem services. Land use and land tenure provide links to the use of ecosystem services, identifying benefits and beneficiaries of ecosystem services. Integrating spatial data about land cover extent and condition means that ecosystem characteristics can be linked to economic agents (or units), which are aggregated to industries.

This Feature Article presents data on land use and land cover change in both physical and monetary terms for the GBR region and will provide a foundation for the ABS Experimental Environmental-Economic Accounts for the Great Barrier Reef due for release in August 2017. For the purpose of this publication, the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) region is defined by the following Natural Resource Management Regions (NRMRs): Burnett Mary, Cape York, Fitzroy, Burdekin, Mackay Whitsunday and Wet Tropics. Users should note that the extent of the GBR region has been created using whole NRMR boundaries to maintain the integrity and consistency of the ABS Statistical Geography - ASGS. Note the inclusion of the entire Cape York NRMR, which is atypical in GBR-related publications, as Cape York's westward-draining basins do not drain directly into the Reef marine ecosystem. The Cape York NRMR, however, has a very small population and low economic activity relative to other GBR NRMRs, which hampers the availability and quality of economic and social data sources, and impacts on detail preservation due to confidentiality requirements. Other ABS and non-ABS publications have varied from this definition by including only part of the Cape York NRMR.

Please see Table 9 in the Downloads tab for the GBR region data.

REFERENCE MAP - GREAT BARRIER REEF REGION, QUEENSLAND

Source: Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2016 - Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Boundary - Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) © Commonwealth of Australia, 2017

• Livestock Grazing accounted for just over two-thirds (or 67%) of all land area in the GBR region in both 2011 and 2016. This land use also reported the largest increase in land area over the accounting period, increasing from 32.2 million hectares in 2011 to 32.4 million hectares in 2016. This change included 374,183 hectares in additions and 207,457 hectares in reductions. This increase was largely due to the transfer of 100,213 hectares from 'Vacant Residential' and 86,333 hectares from 'Agriculture Cropping - Other', which was countered by a loss of 66,113 hectares to 'Extractive Industries'.
• 'Residential' land use was the biggest contributor to unimproved land value within the GBR region, accounting for more than one half of the total land value in the GBR region (58% or $76.4 billion in 2016). The unimproved value of 'Residential' land reported a net increase of 14% between 2011 and 2016, from $66.8 billion to $76.4 billion respectively. This was largely due to $6.4 billion in revaluations, as well as $4.5 billion in additions and $1.3 billion in reductions.
• 'Forestry - Commercial Timber Production' reported the largest decrease in land area (38% or 37,741 hectares) from 99,941 hectares in 2011 to 62,200 hectares in 2016. This consisted of 7,538 hectares in additions and 45,279 hectares in reductions. This decrease was largely due to a reclassification of 33,546 hectares to 'Livestock Grazing'. Note that this is a reclassification of primary land use and does not necessarily indicate a decline in forestry.

Summary of land use by area (GBR region) - 30 June 2011 to 30 June 2016
Land use description		Opening stock (30 June 2011)	Closing stock (30 June 2016)	Total net change	Percent change
		Hectares	Hectares	Hectares	%
	Residential	103 885	112 564	8 679	8.4
	Commercial	151 143	150 325	-818	-0.5
	Industrial	49 434	51 534	2 099	4.2
	Extractive Industries	874 307	943 891	69 584	8.0
	Infrastructure, Utilities and Community Services	2 408	2 340	-68	-2.8
	Agriculture Cropping - Sugar Cane	679 372	651 596	-27 776	-4.1
	Agriculture Cropping - Other	1 207 311	1 123 437	-83 874	-6.9
	Livestock Grazing	32 245 325	32 412 051	166 726	0.5
	Livestock - Special Purpose Structures	42 589	34 939	-7 600	-18.0
	Horticulture - Orchards	55 098	59 426	4 328	7.9
	Horticulture - Other	36 745	36 921	176	0.5
	Horticulture - Special Purpose Structural Improvements	9 749	7 832	-1 917	-19.7
	Forestry - Commercial Timber Production	99 941	62 200	-37 741	-37.8
	Vacant Residential	998 893	904 001	-94 892	-9.5
	Unallocated (a)	205 855	209 008	3 153	1.5
	Not Classified (b)	11 293 803	11 293 803	-	-
	GBR region Total	48 055 868	48 055 868	-	-
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells).
Any discrepancies between totals and sums of components in this publication are due to rounding.
(a) This includes land uses that could not be allocated to AVPCC.
(b) No land use information available.

Summary of land use by land value (GBR region) - 30 June 2011 to 30 June 2016
Land use description		Opening stock (30 June 2011)	Closing stock (30 June 2016)	Total net change	Percent change
		$'000	$'000	$'000	%
	Residential	66 819 546	76 420 602	9 601 055	14.4
	Commercial	5 182 819	5 220 987	38 169	0.7
	Industrial	3 274 549	3 845 013	570 465	17.4
	Extractive Industries	240 064	237 448	-2 616	-1.1
	Infrastructure, Utilities and Community Services	274 490	306 568	32 077	11.7
	Agriculture Cropping - Sugar Cane	1 469 716	1 608 845	139 130	9.5
	Agriculture Cropping - Other	1 083 203	910 245	-172 958	-16.0
	Livestock Grazing	9 172 851	7 549 056	-1 623 795	-17.7
	Livestock - Special Purpose Structures	75 843	75 482	-361	-0.5
	Horticulture - Orchards	145 275	194 054	48 779	33.6
	Horticulture - Other	108 369	106 967	-1 401	-1.3
	Horticulture - Special Purpose Structural Improvements	20 219	16 660	-3 559	-17.6
	Forestry - Commercial Timber Production	70 324	50 599	-19 725	-28.0
	Vacant Residential	34 669 739	34 139 624	-530 115	-1.5
	Unallocated (a)	425 476	389 689	-35 787	-8.4
	Not Classified (b)	-	-	-	-
	GBR region Total	123 032 485	131 071 840	8 039 355	6.5
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells).
Any discrepancies between totals and sums of components in this publication are due to rounding.
(a) This includes land uses that could not be allocated to AVPCC.
(b) No land use information available.

• The largest net change in broad land cover was 'Grasslands' with an increase from 11.5 million hectares to 12.1 million hectares (an increase of 611,424 hectares) between 2010-2011 to 2014-15. This included 4.3 million hectares of additions and 3.7 million hectares of reductions. The increase in 'Grasslands' was largely from a loss in 'Trees' (472,634 hectares) and 'Rainfed Lands' (139,720 hectares).
• The broad land cover 'Trees' covered around two-thirds of the GBR region in both 2010-2011 and 2014-2015. Over the accounting period 'Trees' decreased by 1.2% (or 379,089 hectares) from 31.7 million hectares to 31.3 million hectares, with 6.6 million hectares of additions and 7.0 million hectares of reductions. The decrease in 'Trees' was largely to 'Grasslands' (472,634 hectares).
• 'Woody Shrubs' experienced the greatest percentage change of all broad land cover classes with an 175% increase between 2010-2011 to 2014-2015 from 53,469 hectares to 147,133 hectares. The increase in 'Woody Shrubs' was largely due to changes from 'Grasslands' (48,652 hectares) and 'Trees' (44,600 hectares).
• At a detailed level, 'Open Forest' and 'Woodland' covered the largest areas, with 13.4 million and 10.7 million hectares in 2010-2011 and 11.1 million and 12.1 million hectares in 2014-15 respectively. 'Open Forest' also had the largest net change of all land cover classes with a decrease of 2.3 million hectares (or 17%).

Summary of broad land cover by area (GBR region) - 2010-2011 to 2014-2015
Land cover description		Opening stock (2010-2011)	Closing stock (2014-2015)	Total net change	Percent change
		Hectares	Hectares	Hectares	%
	Urban Areas & Extraction Sites (a)	145 833	145 883	-	-
	Waterbodies	153 388	150 352	-3 037	-2.0
	Wetlands	458 519	373 693	-84 825	-18.5
	Irrigated Lands	469 087	443 327	-25 764	-5.5
	Rainfed Lands	3 417 547	3 205 173	-212 375	-6.2
	Grasslands	11 451 811	12 063 235	611 428	5.3
	Woody Shrubs	53 469	147 133	93 664	175.2
	Trees	31 653 427	31 274 338	-379 089	-1.2
	No Data	251 306	251 306	-	-
	GBR region Total	48 054 375	48 054 375	-	-
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells).
Any discrepancies between totals and sums of components in this publication are due to rounding.
(a) Urban Areas & Extraction Sites is a static land cover type. These classes show no changes over time.