Biodiversity

Energy Resources of Australia Ltd's (ERA) Biodiversity Action Plan includes surveys of threatened species on the Ranger and Jabiluka leases, and weed management programmes.

Part of collaborative studies with the Northern Territory Government and Parks Australia, the threatened species studies address the decline of small native mammal fauna across the top end of Australia.

The decline appears to be due to inappropriate fire regimes, poisoning by cane toads, predation by feral cats, and disease.

ERA's work contributes to land use management plans which deliver a net positive impact on biodiversity value through avoidance, offsets or additional conservation actions.

Since 2003, annual fine scale weed mapping has been undertaken on the Ranger Project Area and Jabiluka Mineral Lease to improve on ground weed management and to record long-term changes.

The 2010 mapping was conducted during April and May and focused on the distributions of 13 priority weed species.

A total of 2,557 hours were spent managing weeds in the 2009/2010 control season, up from 1,528 hours in 2008/2009.

Weeds come into the Kakadu National Park and the Ranger Project Area primarily via roads and creeks from surrounding areas.