Cosmos
Cosmos is a quarterly science magazine. We aim to inspire curiosity in ‘The Science of Everything’ and make the world of science accessible to everyone.
By Cosmos
From Recovery Plans to Recovery Teams and everything in between, writes Imma Perfetto at Cosmos Weekly.
Every year more and more Australian species are being listed as threatened or are having their conservation status upgraded.
The continent is home to between 600,000 and 700,000 different species, many of which – including 83% of mammals, and 45% of birds – are found nowhere else in the world. But once we know one of these species is in trouble, how do we actually go about saving it?
Threatened species are listed by the federal Minister for Environment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), which provides Australia’s national framework to identify, protect and manage threatened native species and ecological communities.
Any member of the public can submit nominations to add or change the threat status of a species, based on, for instance, its population size, a reduction in that population or a reduction in its geographic range.
The Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC) reviews these nominations and makes recommendations to the Minister who either endorses or rejects the nomination. There are a few steps involved, which are outlined in much more detail here.
The TSSC produces ‘Conservation Advice’ to establish why a species is listed and what can be done to stop its decline or support its recovery. But Conservation Advice is just that – advice – and it’s not legally enforceable.
“We’ve spent the last two years trying to get a Recovery Plan up and running and met numerous obstacles – we have no funding to do it.”
– Dr Noel Preece
