Proceedings of the WWF-Australia Quoll Workshop

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7. Protection of HabitatProtection of existing quoll habitat both on private and public land was identified as a management priority. For privateland, the need to engage with landholders is critical to achieving habitat protection. For public land, issues regardingappropriately sized and managed areas and connectivity were raised as important factors in reserve establishment.Actions/Recommendations:• Support and develop programs to provide incentives/stewardship payments to encourage habitat protection andappropriate management on private land.• Assess and learn from case studies in QLD and WA on landholder engagement8. Eastern Quoll - Nomination for Federal ListingThe eligibility of eastern quolls for listing under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act)was discussed.Actions/Recommendations:• Nominate listing of eastern quolls under state and federal legislation.Responsibility:• Department of Primary Industries and Water (Tasmania) to nominate eastern quolls for listing under the EPBC Act inthe first instance.9. Fire Impacts and ResearchThe impact of fire on quoll populations is not clearly understood. There is a need to research and monitor the impact ofprescribed burns different fire regimes on quoll populations.Actions/Recommendations:• Support research and monitoring of the impact of fire on quoll populations.10. Community Involvement and AwarenessParticipants identified a lack of public awareness of quolls generally and negative perceptions of quolls as a barrier toquoll conservation. As identified above, participants also recognised the need to engage with private landholders tosupport quoll conservation on private land. The need to raise awareness and the public perception of quolls was identifiedas important to supporting quoll conservation. Opportunities for raising awareness that were identified included the useof photos and footage, grants funding and the media to assist in engaging private landholders.Actions/Recommendations:• Improve the public perception of quolls and support community and landholder engagement in quoll conservation.11. Cane ToadsCane toads were identified as the major threat to the northern quoll as well as being an issue for the northern subspeciesof spotted-tailed quoll and potentially bronze quoll in New Guinea. Key points raised in relation to this issue included:• The use of sanctuary islands to address cane toad impacts• Building and protection of populations at locations safe from cane toads (such as islands in the Northern Territory),• The use of persistent northern quoll populations to re-populate critical areas• On-going protection of populations that have survived in the presence of cane toads• Research into why some populations are able to persist in the presence of cane toads.• Translocation of northern quolls (lower priority)Actions/Recommendations:• Ongoing support for identifying or establishing and protecting island populations• Support research into why some populations are able to persist in the presence of cane toads and protection of thesepopulations18
12. Gene BankingGene banking was identified as an opportunity to protect quoll genetics, with support for investigating this option further.Action/Recommendation:• No specific action required13. Communication and Establishment of an Australasian Quoll NetworkDevelopment and leadership of an Australasian Quoll Network was an important recommendation from the workshop. Thisis particularly important given that there are no active recovery teams for quolls and considering their broad geographicdistribution across Australia and New Guinea. The group suggested that the Threatened Species Network should takethe lead for building such a network. The network would facilitate sharing of information and communications, andcoordination between regional recovery groups. Development of the network was considered an important priority tomaintain momentum and timelines for quoll conservation, encourage further community involvement and improve thenational promotion and public perception of quolls via the media.Facilitating communication was a common theme identified by many participants, and identified as one that would bebest managed via the Australasian Quoll Network. Participants identified that there is a great need to share informationbetween quoll researchers, managers and stakeholders within and across species regarding the projects and researchcurrently underway, and lessons learned from projects.The establishment of an Australasian Quoll Network links to a number of the other recommendations made during theworkshop. Participants identified that a number of priority activities identified, such as the development of a business planfor quolls, could be facilitated through the new network.There was strong support for building on the communication started at the workshop by establishing a repository databaseof current projects and actions, and to hold a follow-up workshop in 3-5 years time.Action/Recommendation:• Establish an Australasian Quoll Network to facilitate communication, including the following outputs:• An Australasian quoll plan• A quoll communication network• Identification of key regions and ecosystems• Recognition of key threats (particularly introduced predators, cane toads and habitat loss/modification) acrossspecies• Identification of key actions, including survey and monitoring, habitat management, translocation, predator controland review of the NSW fox Threat Abatement Plan,• Investigation of ways to overcome legislative barriersResponsibility:• TSN to take the lead on establishing the network.19
Page 4 and 5: BACKGROUNDAustralia has the worst r
Page 6 and 7: Theme 1: Updates and new informatio
Page 8 and 9: is not also present in Australia. I
Page 11 and 12: Clare Hawkins, Tasmanian Department
Page 14 and 15: Jenny has compared the relative eff
Page 16 and 17: Theme 4: Barriers and solutionsWork
Page 20 and 21: Summary of actions andrecommendatio
Page 22 and 23: 12. Gene bankingInvestigate potenti
Page 24 and 25: Kat MillerKeith MorrisKendall Bento

Proceedings of the WWF-Australia Quoll Workshop

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