Authority biodiversity projects manager Dean Robertson said north- south vegetation links were important in preparing for climate change.

"The climate change variables in the Wimmera are going to move from north to south," Mr Robertson

"If it's too dry or hot for particular species of animals they're obviously going to die out and plants too. If it's too dry or too hot they won't germinate.

"What the Wimmera CMA is trying to do is in our native vegetation planning make links across the landscape in a north-south direction so that native plants and animals have the opportunity to spread through the landscape into areas where the climate suits them."

Mr Robertson said climate change increased the importance of projects like the Grampians to Little Desert Biolink.

"We need to allow species to be able to move through the landscape so they can continue to be in the landscape," he said.

"In an extreme example, we might lose species locally where they are now, but the good thing is they will appear in other parts of the region where they haven't been seen before."

Mr Robertson said climate change could impact on species with limited mobility.

"The problem is that some species are very limited in how far they can move, something like the striped legless lizard," he said.

"They don't move big distances throughout their life."

He said mobile species, like the magpie, would adapt more easily to a changing climate.

The department's climate change report found climate change would also have indirect biodiversity effects.

"Climate change is likely to amplify existing threats such as habitat loss and invasive species making their impacts considerably worse," the report stated.

Laura Poole