The National Conservation Lands Database contains data on the location and nature of private lands protected and/or managed for conservation purposes in Australia. This data set was created as part of a collaborative project between the data contributors and the Australian Government. The project was governed by a Steering Committee with representatives from five of the nine data contributors listed below. These acronyms are used in the remainder of the data. The program that contributed the data is described in the Completeness section of the metadata.DEC: Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation DECCW: New South Wales Department of Environment, Climate Change and WaterDEH: South Australia Department of Environment and Heritage - now the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and Natural ResourcesDERM: Queensland Department of Environment and Resource ManagementDPIPWE: Tasmania Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and EnvironmentNCT: New South Wales Nature Conservation Trusts Covenanting program NRETAS: Northern Territory Department of Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport Covenanting ProgramNTA WA: The National Trust of Australia (WA) TFN: Trust For Nature (Victoria) This 2009 (first) version of the database includes the majority of high security mechanisms operating on private land in Australia, where conservation is the sole or key objective. The data set contains all agreements from the inception of the program through which they were delivered to (and including) those established on the 30 June 2009. The department intends to annually update the database.The database contains:- an NCLD_DESC table - that contains descriptions of each agreement- an NCLD_POLY feature class - that contains all the agreement polygons- a NCLD_LABEL layer - that contains one point for each agreement that fits within an agreement polygon- a NCLD_OVERLAP_POLY feature class -that contains all agreement polygons that overlapped higher level agreement polygons. This is explained below.The polygons in this data set represent the land subject to private land conservation agreements. Each agreement is uniquely identified by AGREMT_ID. There are two polygon layers associated with the database. The principle layer is called the NCLD_POLY feature class and contains polygons of the location of the agreements. Where there are overlapping agreements, the most secure agreement is represented in the polygon layer and those agreements that were of lower security and overlapped, have been removed from the agreement polygon layer and stored in the NCLD_OVERLAP_POLY feature class. The NCLD_POLY feature class and the NCLD_OVERLAP_POLY feature class attribute table that the AGREMT_ID and few other fields. The descriptive details of each agreement are stored in the NCLD_DESC table including the GIS_AREA for the convenience of calculating statistics. This text table can be linked to the polygon layers for GIS analysis. The attributes of the NCLD_DESC table are described in the Attribute Accuracy section of this metadata. Many of the attributes are the same as those used in the Collaborative Australian Protected Area Database .In order to facilitate topology checking and analysis the NCLD_POLY feature class does not contain overlapping polygons. Overlapping agreements do occur in practice, where there is more than one agreement legally still in place at a time. To capture this information the polygon data has been processed to represent the highest security agreement at any one location in the agreements polygon layer. Agreements that are completely displaced by a higher security agreement have the value in the OVERLAP field in the text table, a GIS_AREA of 0 (zero) and the entire polygon represented only in the NCLD_OVERLAP_POLY feature class. Agreements that are only partially displaced have the displaced portion of the polygon(s) in the NCLD_OVERLAP_POLY feature class. In the agreements text table the partially displaced agreements will have the reduced value in the OVERLAP field and a GIS_AREA is the area of the remaining polygon in the NCLD_POLY feature class.All the overlaps in this version of the database occurred within the DECCW agreements. A hierarchy of highest to lower level agreements was decided in collaboration with DECCW. TYPE = Conservation Agreements were agreed to have the highest protection value, being in perpetuity, registered on title and as the agreement contains a broader range of conservation measures. TYPE = Registered property agreements were ranked the middle security level as these were registered on title and the agreements had more restricted conservation scope. The lowest level agreements were considered to be TYPE = Wildlife Refuge, as these were not registered on title and of an indefinite term and contained the lowest level of restrictions on activities and conservation measures that had to be adopted as part of the agreement compared to the other two types.The way that agreements were mapped differed between authorities and agreement types. Some types only mapped the high conservation value portion of a land parcel whereas others mapped the entire title or property or nearly the whole title and subdivided into zones with one a conservation or protected zone. For example a WA Department of Environment and Conservation Covenant does not have any zones and only covers the conservation or protected area. In contrast, a Trust for Nature Victoria Conservation Covenant is subdivided into three zones; Modified Land, Domestic Area and Protected Area.Programs that map only the high conservation value portion of a land parcel are those that have AUTHORITY of DEC, NCT, DEH, DPIPWE (most agreements) and DECCW (where TYPE is Conservation Agreement or Registered Property Agreement). In the case of AUTHORITY = NTA WA AND TYPE = National Trust Covenants the entire property is mapped and subdivided into farmland and bushland zones. In the case AUTHORITY = DECCW AND TYPE = Wildlife Refuge , the whole title was mapped (the high conservation value area is delineated on a map filed with the agreement -but not mapped in their spatial database). DERM and VIC TFN map either the entire property or part of the property and use zones to differentiate between the conservation area and areas where less restricted activity can take place. Examples of DERM Nature Refuge zone types are conservation, domestic, infrastructure, agriculture, restoration. A few DPIPWE Conservation Covenants contain zones. This data set only maps the area of the whole agreement, and does not delineate zones. Therefore although the area of the conservation part of the agreement could be the same between a DEC agreement and a NTA WA agreement, the GIS_AREA will be higher for the NTA WA agreement that also includes farmland. GIS_AREA will be higher for programs that map a larger area in addition to the high conservation value area.NOTE: This item refers to a dataset with restricted access. The related metadata is available for download as a Word document as necessary. Additional information about this dataset or requests for access to the data should be directed to geospatial@dcceew.gov.au
