Priority species - Department of Environment and Heritage Protection

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the South East Queensland NRM region, and one bird species (the little tern) and one butterfly species (varied sword-grass brown (Queensland subspecies)) were added. As a result of the mollusc assessment, one snail species (Bennett’s woodland snail) was added to the priority list for the South East Queensland NRM region. These changes have been recognised in this document (Tables 1b and 1c). Between the date of the workshop and the production of this Actions for Biodiversity document there has been changes to the categories and names of some species under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. Consequently, a number of species may require re-assessment under Back on Track because of new information received, and re-assessment may change the Back on Track rank for these priority and Data Deficient species. A separate Managers’ Criteria Weighting was carried out by relevant senior DERM managers, and this weighting was used to generate a list of priority species for management by DERM. Although the full DERM priority species list is not presented in this report, the DERM (Statewide) ranking for the South East Queensland NRM region priority species is indicated in Tables 1a, 1b and 1c. Climate Change The Back on Track species prioritisation framework commenced in 2005, with most species assessment and regional workshops taking place between 2005 and 2008. Since that time, information on climate change and its likely impacts on biodiversity has become more reliable and detailed (Steffen et al. 2009), and more advanced directions for State and National climate change policies have emerged (DERM 2009; National Biodiversity Strategy Review Task Group 2009). Many actions identified by Back on Track concur with the key messages and policy directions of these recent documents. However, some aspects of Back on Track will need to be modified and updated in response to this new information. Improving landscape connectivity and building resilience will be key strategies to ensure that natural systems have the capacity to adapt to shifting climatic zones (National Biodiversity Strategy Review Task Group 2009) and the acceleration of actions to control and reduce existing stressors on Australian ecosystems and species is essential to increase resilience (Steffen et al. 2009). Back on Track has identified numerous priority actions to improve connectivity by addressing habitat fragmentation and even more Back on Track actions have been formulated to improve the resilience of species and ecosystems by managing existing stressors (e.g. feral animals, weeds, fire regime and grazing regime). In this way, Back on Track is already implementing the recommendations of Steffen et al. (2009) and the National Biodiversity Strategy Review Task Group (2009) to improve the capacity of threatened species to adapt to climate change. However, there is a limit to how far enhancing resilience will be effective, and a major rethink is needed to develop new policy and management tools to conserve biodiversity in a changing climate (Steffen et al. 2009). Future Back on Track workshops will be able to use the new information available on the predicted regional impacts of climate change. ClimateQ summaries provide projections for changes in temperature, rainfall and evaporation in each of 13 regions for 2030 (under a medium emissions scenario), and for 2050 and 2070 (under low and high emissions scenarios). More information on the ClimateQ regional summaries is available on the Office of Climate Change website and can be used to identify actions that will be more responsive to climate change. If the information is available, Back on Track should aim to formulate management strategies that ‘hedge our bets’ against different climate change scenarios. This can be done by identifying the actions needed to conserve species under a variety of future climate change scenarios. The actions that would be effective under all climate change scenarios become ‘no regrets’ management actions, and these actions should be the highest priority for implementation. Some modification to the methods used to assess species may also be needed. For example, Back on Track species assessments currently only focus on major threats likely to occur in the next five years. This is to prevent the dissipation of resources on minor and potential future threats that may not happen. However, this means that major future threats (beyond five years) that are likely to happen (e.g. climate change) are not considered when scoring Criterion 3a. To make the best use of 13
the new information available on the impacts of climate change and other threats, consideration will be given to scoring major threats to species that are likely to occur within a longer time period into the future. Iconic species The Back on Track species prioritisation method uses a combination of factors to determine priority species for the State and each Natural Resource Management region. These include assessing whether a species is ‘threatened’ using IUCN criteria (traditional approach) and also asking questions about importance to the community, knowledge of threats, whether action can be taken to address threats and what resources will be required to recover the species. In addition, senior managers for each region and the State weight the criteria to reflect the priorities for conservation resources in their region. (Refer methodology: ). The prioritisation method treats iconic species in the same manner as non-iconic species. That is, their iconic status does not mean they automatically become priority species. They do, however, score highly on the importance to the community criteria. Two iconic species (koala and glossy black-cockatoo (eastern)) have been assessed as ‘medium’ priority rather than ‘critical’ or ‘high’ priority in the South East Queensland NRM region as some might expect. The glossy black-cockatoo (eastern) has been assessed as a State priority but following the bird review and application of SEQC weighting criteria this species is now a medium priority for the SEQ NRM region. It should be noted that as a State priority, DERM will continue to place resources to addressing threats that impact on this species. Though the koala population in the South East Queensland NRM region is under significant threat, the assessment is made for the population across the whole state. Overall, koalas in Queensland were assessed as not fulfilling the requirements of ‘threatened’ status under the IUCN criteria. Subsequently the species is ranked as a ‘medium’ priority under the Back on Track species prioritisation framework. The koala in particular is of significant social value and is very important to the tourism economy. The State Government has instigated a koala crisis response strategy in South East Queensland. The Back on Track species prioritisation framework does not prevent interest groups and others placing conservation effort and resources towards iconic species or any other species. Instead, the framework recognises that conservation investment resources are scarce and so guides where conservation effort will have the most strategic value and greatest chance of success. The various taxonomic groups will be subject to a review process every few years. New information on iconic and other species can be taken into account at that time. Data deficient species Some species were considered to be too poorly known about to receive scores for all seven Back on Track criteria. These species are referred to as ‘data deficient’ and are priorities for research or taxonomic work. The data deficient species found in the South East Queensland NRM region are listed in Appendix 2. 14
Page 1: Traditional Owner involvement in na
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Priority species - Department of Environment and Heritage Protection

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