15

Summary: the value of monitoring

threatened biodiversity

David B. Lindenmayer, Natasha M. Robinson, Benjamin C.

Scheele and Sarah Legge

The chapters in this section illustrate clearly and very powerfully the many benefits
of monitoring threatened biodiversity. One of the primary benefits (in the case of
threatened species) is the ability to diagnose the reasons for population decline.
This, of course, is fundamental to subsequent management interventions that are
designed to arrest declines and lead to eventual recovery (Chapter 10). For example,
the case study of threatened frog monitoring highlights the value of such work for
uncovering the importance of disease in the demise of several species (Chapter 12).
However, diagnosing decline is far from straightforward, and even well-designed
and long-running monitoring programs may fail to uncover the full range of
reasons why a species or assemblage of species is declining. This has been the case
with the suite of declining mammal species in south-western Australia where the
impacts of cat predation have been implicated, but the potential effects of other
drivers of decline have yet to be fully resolved, despite many decades of
concentrated effort (Chapter 13). Failure to diagnose decline does not mean that a
given monitoring program is without value. Rather, it may mean the program has