Background Report 2: Urbanisation and the
Cassowary: Impacts and Economics
Research Report
Anthea Coggan1 and Stuart Whitten2
1 CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, St.
Lucia
2 CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems,
Gungahlin
ISBN 9781921359286
Published March 2009
MTSRF Project 4.9.6 -
Strategic Natural Resource Management and land use planning [Task
(c) Implementing ecosystem goods and services]
Introduction
The Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii
or 'cassowary') is a significant keystone species to the natural
environment of the Wet Tropics. The cassowary is a major and often
sole disperser of seeds for over one hundred species of rainforest
trees and vines (BioTropica Australia 2005). Because of the
importance of the cassowary to the overall biodiversity of the Wet
Tropics, research into the refining, tailoring and application of a
market based instrument (MBI) to manage for environmental
conservation in developing areas will use the a viable cassowary
population as the objective of any instrument mix analysed.
Mission Beach is a population hotspot for the cassowary, with an
estimated current population of 110 birds. The development
occurring in Mission Beach (discussed in the first background
report, Coggan and Whitten 2009) and the relative high density of
cassowary lead us to use Mission Beach as a case study for our
research.
With the maintenance of a viable cassowary population the
objective of any mix of environmental conservation instruments, in
this report we set out to better understand the requirements of
cassowaries (habitat, etc.), the direct and indirect impacts of
people on being able to achieve the viable cassowary population
objective. A review of literature reveals a large quantity of
information beneficial for this understanding but also that there
are many information gaps. Addressing some of the information gaps
will be of significant importance to the overall MBI design in
later years of the research project.
Structure of this Report
In the next section a brief description of the cassowary along
with some key habitat requirements is provided. This is followed by
an analysis of the human and urbanisation impacts on cassowaries in
Mission Beach. We then analyse the undersupply of cassowaries from
an economic angle through an analysis of current markets and market
failures. The conditions for government intervention, conclusions
for this report and implications for the next report are discussed
in the concluding section.
