Threatened Species Action Plan sets target of no new Australian extinctions

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek released a roadmap to improve outcomes of threatened species over the next 10 years, replacing a plan released by the former government in 2021.

With an aim to broaden the scope of biodiversity protection, following the release of the 2022 State of the Environment report in July and a scathing audit of the management of threatened species in March, the plan will prioritise 110 species and 20 locations.

The Australian alpine area within the ACT is on the plan's priority location list. Local species on the list include the eastern quoll, swift parrot, new holland mouse and Canberra grassland earless dragon.

Belinda Wilson, an ecologist at the Australian National University's Fenner School, has worked to reintroduce eastern quolls to Mulligans Flat since 2016, where the population is now considered self sustaining.

She said while recovery of the species on Australia's mainland was encouraging, efforts must be matched in Tasmania, where evidence suggested continued rapid decline.

Ms Wilson said habitat change resulting from drought and bushfire was largely responsible for the loss, with limited data on populations currently available.

With the eastern quoll priority listed since 2015, she said funding for a comprehensive data collection strategy in Tasmania should follow.

"The eastern quoll is doing relatively well in the spaces where it has been given the appropriate amount of commitment and funding," she said.

"I worry about the species where that has not been provided to the same extent."

ANU Fenner School director Professor Saul Cunningham said while more ambitious targets were welcome, investment was crucial.

"Globally the record is one of setting targets for better biosecurity outcomes and then missing those targets,' he said.

"Substantial improvement in the trajectory of biodiversity requires not only targets but real change in our approach to biodiversity conservation, increased public and private investment and better regulation."

In addition to zero new extinctions, the Threatened Species Action Plan has laid a foundation for the protection of an additional 50 million hectares of land.

Professor Cunningham said protecting land from environmentally destructive development was important, as long as it didn't simply mean new lines on a map.

"Expansion of the reserve system must be matched by resources to manage threats, such as from invasive species and unsuitable fire regimes and decision on land management must include traditional owners," he said.

"If, for example, we declare a new reserve based on wetlands in the Murray Darling, but then don't match that with sufficient environmental flows, then the new lines on the map will not translate into better conservation outcomes."

Professor Cunningham said no new extinctions was the right objective to focus on.

"It is too late for the 100 or so species that we know we have lost from Australia in the most recent 200 years, but we can do better in the future," he said.

"In most cases when species are on the edge we know what the threats are. Our failures have been more about lack of action rather than lack of options."

Dejan Stojanovic is a conservation biologist and a member of the Difficult Bird Research Group, an ANU based team focused on understanding the threats to endangered birds.

Their research focuses on six of the 22 bird species prioritised under the plan.

Dr Stojanovic, who focuses on the swift parrot, said translating the announced priorities into tangible, beneficial outcomes will require a commitment to evidence-based management of Australia's natural resources.

"For species like swift parrots, that will require lots of hard work overcoming entrenched attitudes to land management that have landed us in this hot water over the last two decades, and fixing these problems won't happen overnight," he said.

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Dr Stojanovic said the swift parrot, which shows up in Canberra whenever there is enough tree flowering locally to draw them in, represented the canary in the coal mine for Australian threatened species.

"If we can save swift parrots from extinction it will give me hope for the hundreds of other non-priority species that are still in urgent need of conservation, but lack the charisma, or existing science on which to act," he said.

"So far, we've really failed the swift parrot and I hope that the new announcement represents the turning of the tide on our indifference to the atrocious state of Australia's environment."

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