The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment has released a 10-year blueprint for protecting Australia’s biodiversity and establishing a national prioritisation framework for threatened species.
Minister for the Environment, Sussan Ley said the Department’s strategy, Threatened Species Strategy 2021-2031, targeted a broad range of species, focussed on key native habitats, and aimed to drive the development of new technologies.
“[The Strategy] draws on the lessons of the 2019-20 Bushfires to identify and adapt to sudden threats from an increase in natural disasters, calls for a more coordinated approach to culling feral pest animals and weeds that are pushing species to extinction, and plans for the deployment of new monitoring technologies including drones and environmental DNA,” Ms Ley said.
“In addressing adaptation and resilience, the Strategy considers identifying and conserving potential future places of refuge that species might migrate to and strategies for ‘assisted colonisation’ for populations whose local environments are impacted by changing climate,” she said.
Ms Ley said the Strategy would be the “guiding light” for threatened species funding over the next decade.
She said it identified both species and places, with an expanded focus on the protection of a more diverse range of species and their habitats, including reptiles; amphibians; freshwater species; and marine species.
“The Strategy has been developed with environmental scientists, threatened species experts, environmental groups, landholders and Indigenous groups,” she said.
Ms Ley said the Strategy’s National Priority species would be selected according to six prioritisation principles which covered, risk of extinction; multiple benefits; feasibility and effectiveness; importance to people; uniqueness; and representativeness.
She said the 10-year Strategy would be underpinned by two five-year action plans which would identify specific targets across four direct action areas, mitigate new and established threats; conserve, restore and improve habitat; emergency preparedness and response; and climate change adaption and resilience.
“The first action plan will be released after stakeholder consultation in the second half of the year, and is expected to identify up to 100 priority species and 20 places with specific targets to focus recovery actions to 2026,” Ms Ley said.
The Department’s 44-page Threatened Species Strategy 2021-2031 can be accessed at this PS News link.
