Display Name: Ecological condition (compared to natural state)
Description: This Indicator accounts for how the generalised quality of terrestrial habitats supporting biodiversity at each location and its connection with habitat at other locations within a neighbourhood enables biological movement such as foraging, dispersal and migration. It is used to account for the carrying capacity of a landscape to support its original complement of biodiversity and ecosystems. This indicator (3.1c) is part of a family of measures on the condition and connectivity of habitat, including its capacity to support the needs of native plants, animals and ecosystems in NSW, as a proportion relative to that in the pre-industrial era. Ecological condition and ecological carrying capacity are used to estimate the ‘state of biodiversity including undiscovered species’ and ecological condition is used to estimate ‘expected survival of all known and undiscovered species’ is one of a series of indicators on the status of biodiversity and ecological integrity in NSW developed to contribute to assessing the performance of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. The overarching indicator framework which outlines how indicators are related and derived is presented in the “method to assess biodiversity and ecological integrity across New South Wales” (OEH, 2018).