Monitoring should be a critical component of recovery for threatened species and ecological communities. In a comprehensive review, the hub noted some
exemplary monitoring programs for some threatened species; however, for many threatened species there was no monitoring, and the existing monitoring
programs for most threatened species were suboptimal. Reasons include the challenges of coordinating diverse stakeholders, and the perception that
monitoring programs for threatened biodiversity are difficult and expensive.
This project aims to develop plans for monitoring programs for key groupings of threatened species, plus costed pathways for their implementation. It will
also identify threatened species that have had little or no monitoring to date, and prioritise those threatened species for which new or enhanced monitoring
is most critical.
Dr Leonie Valentine and Dr Katinka Ruthrof monitoring plant regeneration after fire in Kinds Park and how that is affected by digging mammals. Photo: Nicolas Rakotopare
Why is the research needed?
Monitoring provides critical data to inform most aspects of the recovery process for threatened species and ecological communities, including: (1)
assessment of the conservation status of species; (2) assessment of the urgency and focus of management intervention; (3) assessment of the effectiveness
of management actions and policy; (4) involvement of the community in conservation effort; (5) reporting on investment and its accountability;
and (6) broader-scale reporting (e.g., state of the environment). However, there has been little advance in recent decades in the extent, quality
and comprehensiveness of monitoring for threatened species and ecological communities.
The paucity of monitoring information and programs for threatened species has long been recognised as an impediment to recovery, and the status of
monitoring of threatened species has not advanced substantially, notwithstanding an explicit commitment in Australia’s Biodiversity Conservation
Strategy 2010-2030 for the establishment and maintenance of a comprehensive monitoring program for Australia’s biodiversity.
Limited progress with monitoring of threatened biodiversity has been due to many factors. The issues have combined to make designing national monitoring
programs for threatened species seem a formidable challenge.
Northern quoll camera trap image from the Pilbara, Western Australia. Photo: Lorna Hernandez Santin
How can the research help?
We will work closely with key stakeholders to help set parameters for prioritising threatened species for monitoring, for developing best practice
(and pragmatically adequate) specifications for monitoring programs for a range of terrestrial and freshwater threatened species with different
characteristics (threats, range, taxa, regions), for considering mechanisms to incorporate inference on trends for all species that may not be
priorities for direct monitoring, for costing various levels of monitoring for sets of priority species, and for developing a prospectus for longer-term
implementation of a strategic program for monitoring Australia’s threatened species.
This approach is planned to overcome the major institutional, budgetary and procedural barriers that currently constrain monitoring for Australia’s
threatened species and to provide a legacy product in the form of a strategic and pragmatic plan for long-term monitoring of threatened species
What research activities are being undertaken?
The project has five interrelated areas of activity:
- Identifying a tractable set of species that represent priorities for monitoring because they may be at extreme extinction risk, their status has
not been reviewed for many years, or they are now subject to threatening factors that are new or of increased intensity
- Developing a set of case studies using species that are adequately representative of many other threatened species (e.g., representing a wider
taxonomic group, or a group of species that are sensitive to similar threats or have similar ecological characteristics or inhabit the same
region), which can be used to develop and cost appropriate, cost-effective practical monitoring protocols
- Blueprinting and costing appropriate monitoring protocols (in the form of a longer-term prospectus) for priority species, with estimation of costs
for a long-term monitoring program that incorporates all priority species, and assessments of the extent to which priority species can be incorporated
in monitoring with budgets of varying and plausible amounts
- Developing a comprehensive scorecard approach that can report on the extent of monitoring and population trajectories for the entire set of threatened
species, where necessary (i.e., where there is no direct monitoring available) applying inference to estimate population trajectory
- Identifying mechanisms and partners to best implement such a strategic monitoring program.
Within the constraints of the available budget, the project team will work closely with DoEE, state/territory representatives, and other major land
managers including NGOs and Indigenous organisations across these areas of activity.
Who is involved?
This project is a collaboration between researchers from the Australian National University, The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland
and Charles Darwin University and the Department of Environment and Energy; and aims to also engage and collaborate with state and territory agencies,
Indigenous groups and conservation NGOs.
Where is the research happening?
This project is national in scope, and will not itself conduct on-ground research. It will aim to consider all terrestrial and freshwater threatened
When is the research happening?