Establishing the importance of the Greater Mapoon area for waterbirds through collaboration with Indigenous land and sea rangers

The Gulf of Carpentaria region is sparsely populated and holds important areas of waterbird habitat that are generally under-surveyed. Here we describe one such area whose importance is becoming better known as a result of a collaboration that started in 2012 involving the Mapoon Land and Sea Rangers, the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance Ltd and BirdLife Australia. Annual surveys from the Greater Mapoon area in western Cape York from 2012-2015 suggest that the area is of national and international significance for waterbirds (based on criteria under the EPBC Act and Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, respectively), particularly migratory shorebirds. Although the area’s remoteness and intense wet seasons make more frequent counting across the area challenging, the phenology of its waterbirds requires further research to determine the specific role and significance of the site within migration cycles.