Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

10 – The value of assessing species recovery: towards a national framework^145

objectives, policy outcomes and international targets – generally a

demonstrated improvement in the conservation status of a species – is

required. Conservation plans, developed under national legislation, are

recognised as key national planning processes to facilitate national action on

threatened species and ecological communities, to engage communities, to

monitor progress and to report on outcomes and conservation success.

● (^) There are difficulties in reliably reporting on threatened species status and
trends: Government and community effort and investment in threatened
species conservation is significant. Yet measuring the efficacy of that effort,
and reporting back to the Australia community, has been difficult because
there is no national system in place to coordinate and report nationally on
trends in threatened species (although there are prototypes emerging for some
taxonomic groups). In particular, the impact of management investment on
species recovery is unclear. Better information on the trends in status of
Australia’s threatened species, and in the effectiveness of conservation
management, is required.
● (^) Opportunities exist to develop more strategic approaches to monitoring and
reporting: The recently released Threatened Species Strategy is an opportunity
to develop more strategic approaches to monitoring and reporting. The
Strategy identifies priorities, action areas and measurable and reportable
targets for the conservation of threatened species and ecological communities.
Monitoring, evaluation and reporting are identified as an important part of
any recovery effort. The Strategy aims to build strong governance
arrangements with recovery teams and develop a national model of reporting
on recovery outcomes.
● (^) A benchmark set of nationally monitored species could better inform
reporting obligations: A benchmark monitoring program could be developed
for a prioritised and targeted subset of species, and act as the nucleus for a
national monitoring program that informs national and international
reporting requirements.
● (^) Learn from, and build upon, current capabilities: Establishing a national
monitoring framework will need to be well supported and governed, cost
effective and aligned with relevant policy. Opportunities exist to enhance
outcomes of the Threatened Species Strategy, align with the proposed revision
of Australia’s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and link to national datasets
as part of national reform in biodiversity information management.

References

Australian Government (2015) Threatened Species Strategy. Australian Government,
Canberra.