The 23 Conservation Management Zones of Australia are geographic areas, classified according to their ecological and threat characteristics. The zones are also aligned with the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia. The Conservation Management Zones provide a way of understanding Australia’s natural environment that will assist in long-term conservation planning and help the Australian Government to better design, deliver and report on Natural Resource Management (NRM) investments, including ensuring alignment of national NRM priorities with local action. The Conservation Management Zones also provide a filter through which to make national environmental and socio-economic data regionally meaningful, accessible and comprehensible to all. They provide a framework for gathering on-ground knowledge and expertise about the environment. This will improve information flow to the Australian Government and other key decision makers about regional NRM requirements, best practice management, emerging NRM issues and knowledge gaps. The Conservation Management Zones do not represent any change to existing administrative boundaries or governance structures, but aim to support the NRM and wider community to cooperatively manage environmental assets across boundaries, where they share common threats, ecological characteristics and stakeholders. The project builds on the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia (IBRA) which has been used to support planning of the National Reserve System, but consolidates the 85 mainland IBRA regions into 23 Conservation Management Zones, where IBRA regions share common characteristics. Further information and profiles describing the zones can be accessed through the Department of the Environments web site at - https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/biodiversity/conservation-management-zones

IBRA regions represent a landscape based approach to classifying the land surface of Australia from a range of continental data on environmental attributes. 85 biogeographic regions have been delineated, each reflecting a unifying set of major environmental influences which shape the occurrence of flora and fauna and their interaction with the physical environment.IBRA Version 5.1 is the result of refinement of the IBRA Version 4 boundaries. These refined boundaries were jointly defined by the Commonwealth, State and Territory nature and conservation agencies. Following a Departmentally facilitated workshop on the revision of boundaries on 24 July 2000, spatial data refinements were undertaken by DEWHA in conjunction with relevant State / Territory agencies. Agreement from all contributing parties, to make the final IBRA5_1 dataset publicly available, was gained in November 2000.Nominal attributes for the IBRA are; climate, lithology/geology, landform, vegetation, flora and fauna, and landuse. The use of these attributes varies across the States and details can be found in "Revision of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia (IBRA) and Development of Version 5.1 - Summary Report", DEH, Sept 2000.

Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) version 7.1 represents a landscape based approach to classifying the land surface of Australia. 89 biogeographic regions and 419 subregions have been delineated, each reflecting a unifying set of major environmental influences which shape the occurrence of flora and fauna and their interaction with the physical environment across Australia and its external territories (excluding Antarctica). IBRA Version 7.1 data consists of two datasets. IBRA regions, which is a larger scale regional classification of homogeneous ecosystems, and subregions, which are more localised. IBRA Version 7.1 is a minor update to IBRA Version 7.0 to coincide with the release of the CAPAD 2024 dataset to more closely conform to the Geoscience Australia (GA) Australia’s Land Borders (see https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/140044). IBRA Version 7.0 regions and subregions are realigned to the updated GA jurisdiction borders in some locations. For example, the Victorian Riverina subregion runs along the NSW-Vic border, the border in this area is updated to better align with the river. IBRA Version 7.1 restores the South Bruny land mass portion of Bruny Island (Tas) back to the Southern Ranges region Southern Ranges subregion to which it was assigned in IBRA Version 6.1. The whole of Bruny Island was incorrectly assigned to the South East region and Tasmanian South East subregion in IBRA Version 7. IBRA Version 7.1, aligns Ball’s Pyramid (south of Lord Howe Island) to other coastal data sources.

Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) version 7.0 represents a landscape based approach to classifying the land surface of Australia. 89 biogeographic regions and 419 sub regions have been delineated, each reflecting a unifying set of major environmental influences which shape the occurrence of flora and fauna and their interaction with the physical environment across Australia and its external territories (excluding Antarctica). IBRA Version 7.0 data consists of two datasets. IBRA bioregions, which is a larger scale regional classification of homogenous ecosystems, and sub regions, which are more localised. IBRA Version 7.0 is the result of both significant changes to certain IBRA 6.1 boundaries, plus refinement of other boundaries due to better data availability amongst some states and territories, and alterations by the states/territories along state borders. The updated boundaries were jointly defined by the Commonwealth, State and Territory nature and conservation agencies. In this respect refinements were carried out to all mainland jurisdictions with significant changes in Queensland and South Australia. In addition, the dataset was also updated to more closely conform to the Geoscience Australia 1:100K State borders, and a standard coding/naming convention introduced (for both regions and sub-regions) resulting in differences to both names and codes used in earlier IBRA Versions.Various sources were used to delineate islands - these included the GA100K Admin layer plus the Australian Maritime Boundaries dataset, a Coral Sea dataset (held in ERIN) and the GA Commonwealth Fisheries 2006 dataset.

Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) version 7.0 represents a landscape based approach to classifying the land surface of Australia. 89 biogeographic regions and 419 sub regions have been delineated, each reflecting a unifying set of major environmental influences which shape the occurrence of flora and fauna and their interaction with the physical environment across Australia and its external territories (excluding Antarctica). IBRA Version 7.0 data consists of two datasets. IBRA bioregions, which is a larger scale regional classification of homogenous ecosystems, and sub regions, which are more localised. IBRA Version 7.0 is the result of both significant changes to certain IBRA 6.1 boundaries, plus refinement of other boundaries due to better data availability amongst some states and territories, and alterations by the states/territories along state borders. The updated boundaries were jointly defined by the Commonwealth, State and Territory nature and conservation agencies. In this respect refinements were carried out to all mainland jurisdictions with significant changes in Queensland and South Australia. In addition, the dataset was also updated to more closely conform to the Geoscience Australia 1:100K State borders, and a standard coding/naming convention introduced (for both regions and sub-regions) resulting in differences to both names and codes used in earlier IBRA Versions. Various sources were used to delineate islands - these included the GA100K Admin layer plus the Australian Maritime Boundaries dataset, a Coral Sea dataset (held in ERIN) and the GA Commonwealth Fisheries 2006 dataset.

Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) version 6.1 represents a landscape based approach to classifying the land surface of Australia. 85 biogeographic regions and 405 sub regions have been delineated, each reflecting a unifying set of major environmental influences which shape the occurrence of flora and fauna and their interaction with the physical environment across Australia.The IBRA Version 6.1 data consists of two datasets. IBRA bioregions, which is a larger scale regional classification of homogenous ecosystems, and sub regions, which are more localised.IBRA Version 6.1 is the result of refinement of the IBRA Version 5.1 and version 6.0 boundaries due to better data availability amongst some states and territories and also based on alterations by the states/territories along the state borders. The refined boundaries were jointly defined by the Commonwealth, State and Territory nature and conservation agencies. Those jurisdictions to refine their data in this version of IBRA include New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. There are 53 newly named sub regions and 5 have been renamed from version 5.1. Whilst there has been a refinement of sub-regional and associated bioregional boundaries in Qld, Vic and western NSW, the new sub-regions are found principally in eastern NSW. In WA changes relate to moving the western boundary of Yalgoo bioregion to the coast, truncating the northern portion of the Geraldton Sandplains bioregion.Nominal attributes that make up IBRA are: climate, lithology/geology, landform, vegetation, flora and fauna, and landuse. The use of these attributes varies across the jurisdictions and for further information individual jurisdictions should be contacted.

Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) version 7.1 represents a landscape based approach to classifying the land surface of Australia. 89 biogeographic regions and 419 subregions have been delineated, each reflecting a unifying set of major environmental influences which shape the occurrence of flora and fauna and their interaction with the physical environment across Australia and its external territories (excluding Antarctica). IBRA Version 7.1 data consists of two datasets. IBRA regions, which is a larger scale regional classification of homogeneous ecosystems, and subregions, which are more localised. IBRA Version 7.1 is a minor update to IBRA Version 7.0 to coincide with the release of the CAPAD 2024 dataset to more closely conform to the Geoscience Australia (GA) Australia’s Land Borders (see https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/140044). IBRA Version 7.0 regions and subregions are realigned to the updated GA jurisdiction borders in some locations. For example, the Victorian Riverina subregion runs along the NSW-Vic border, the border in this area is updated to better align with the river. IBRA Version 7.1 restores the South Bruny land mass portion of Bruny Island (Tas) back to the Southern Ranges region Southern Ranges subregion to which it was assigned in IBRA Version 6.1. The whole of Bruny Island was incorrectly assigned to the South East region and Tasmanian South East subregion in IBRA Version 7. IBRA Version 7.1, aligns Ball’s Pyramid (south of Lord Howe Island) to other coastal data sources.

The indicative spatial distribution of these threatened ecological communities is based on geospatial mapping units (such as local and regional scale vegetation mapping) that best represent the species assemblage and area in nature that defines these ecological communities as described in the relevant Conservation Advice. These distributions should be considered as indicative rather than a definitive assessment of presence or absence of these ecological communities within a given area of interest. They are not intended for use at a local or regional scale and should not be used for absolute area calculations. They represent a starting point for further investigation rather than the outcome of a comprehensive scientific assessment. Ground truthing is required to verify if a particular site meets the diagnostic characteristics and minimum condition thresholds to be the described ecological community.The generalised ECNES data product consists of GIS data in a vector format within a file geodatabase or shapefile. Indicative presence rank information has been coded as:1 – Community may occur within area2 - Community likely to occur within areaThese presence rank categories aim to capture: 1). the specific geospatial mapping units that best represent the species assemblage and area in nature that defines the ecological community as described in the relevant Conservation Advice (likely to occur).2). the broad environmental envelope or geographic region that encompasses all areas that could provide habitat for the ecological community (may occur).Please note: you will need to download the full data product with all threatened ecological community distributions and then query this data in your own GIS or Database system to find a specific ecological community (using the COMMUNITY name field)Field descriptions:COM_ID = Community identification number in Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT).COMMUNITY = Community name as listed under the EPBC Act.EPBC = EPBC Act listed threatened status (critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable).PRES_RANK = Presence rank code to indicate community presence (2 - likely to occur, 1 - may occur).CATEGORY = Description of the presence rank code.EXTRACTED = The date the spatial data and status was extracted from SPRAT.CELL_SIZE = Spatial data resolution – 0.001 degree (approximately 100m) or 0.01 degree (approximately 1km).REGIONS = Indicative region of occurrence based on data sensitivities and applied resolution.CITATION = Citation for data use: Ecological Communities of National Environmental Significance database () Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Canberra. Copyright: Commonwealth of Australia.SPRAT = Link to the Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT) page for further information.

Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) version 6.1 represents a landscape based approach to classifying the land surface of Australia. 85 biogeographic regions and 405 sub regions have been delineated, each reflecting a unifying set of major environmental influences which shape the occurrence of flora and fauna and their interaction with the physical environment across Australia.The IBRA Version 6.1 data consists of two datasets. IBRA bioregions, which is a larger scale regional classification of homogenous ecosystems, and sub regions, which are more localised.IBRA Version 6.1 is the result of refinement of the IBRA Version 5.1 and version 6.0 boundaries due to better data availability amongst some states and territories and also based on alterations by the states/territories along the state borders. The refined boundaries were jointly defined by the Commonwealth, State and Territory nature and conservation agencies. Those jurisdictions to refine their data in this version of IBRA include New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. There are 53 newly named sub regions and 5 have been renamed from version 5.1. Whilst there has been a refinement of sub-regional and associated bioregional boundaries in Qld, Vic and western NSW, the new sub-regions are found principally in eastern NSW. In WA changes relate to moving the western boundary of Yalgoo bioregion to the coast, truncating the northern portion of the Geraldton Sandplains bioregion.Nominal attributes that make up IBRA are: climate, lithology/geology, landform, vegetation, flora and fauna, and landuse. The use of these attributes varies across the jurisdictions and for further information individual jurisdictions should be contacted.

IBRA version 5.1 Sub-regions, like their parent regionalisation IBRA version 5.1, represent a landscape based approach to classifying the land surface of Australia from a range of continental data on environmental attributes, at a finer scale. 354 IBRA Sub-regions have been delineated, each reflecting a unifying set of major environmental influences which shape the occurrence of flora and fauna and their interaction with the physical environment.The IBRA Version 5.1 Sub-regions are the result of refinement of the IBRA Version 4 boundaries. These refined boundaries were jointly defined by the Commonwealth, State and Territory nature and conservation agencies. Following a DEH facilitated workshop on the revision of boundaries on 24 July 2000, spatial data refinements were undertaken by DEH in conjunction with relevant State / Territory agencies.Nominal attributes for the IBRA and IBRA Sub-regions are; climate, lithology/geology, landform, vegetation, flora and fauna, and landuse. The use of these attributes varies across the States.