Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

334 Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

planning of field trips. However, voluntary monitoring can also come with costs
such as time and resources to train people in the use of a standard methodology.
There is also a very real risk of variability in the quality and continuity of data
collected. These issues are explored in detail in this chapter, and some solutions
are suggested.

Introduction

The Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) is
South Australia’s lead agency with responsibility for biodiversity conservation, and
the recovery of threatened species is only one of many responsibilities vying for
priority. To add to this, the number of f lora and fauna species listed under both
state and national legislation is daunting, requiring a priority setting process at the
state or regional level to determine which species warrant attention and resources.
The Census of South Australian Plants, Algae and Fungi (DEWNR 2016) lists
3554 plant taxa indigenous to the state (Table 26.1), and 817 (23%) of these are
listed under South Australia’s National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 (NPW Act) as
either Rare, Endangered or Vulnerable (BDBSA 2016). Of these, 124 plant taxa (and
a similar number of fauna) are listed as nationally threatened under the
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)
(BDBSA 2016).

Engaging with volunteers in South Australia

The recovery of nationally threatened species is guided by a recovery plan or by a
conservation advice document. In South Australia (SA), 85% of the EPBC-listed
plant taxa have either a state or a national recovery plan (Table 26.2), and most of
the remainder have a conservation advice document. In reality, the existence of
these documents does not guarantee an improvement for the conservation status of
a species. For those species with recovery plans, it is usually recommended that a

Table 26.1. The number of South Australian plant taxa listed as threatened under national (EPBC Act) or
state (NPW Act) legislation.

E = Endangered in SA; V = Vulnerable in SA; Rare = Rare in SA; CR = Critically Endangered nationally; EN = Endangered nationally; VU = Vulnerable
nationally.

Number of indigenous plant

taxa in SA

Number listed under SA’s

NPW Act

Number listed under the

EPBC Act

3554 380 Threatened (E or V) 11 ( C R )

48 (EN)

437 Rare 65 (VU)

Total 817 124