8 Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities
The first program would generate focused quantitative data on several
threatened species, with associated data on the impacts of threats and management
interventions. The second program would provide continental-scale information
on trends in threatened species, ecological communities and threats, and on
management effectiveness. These programs are feasible and achievable, and would
highlight the organisational requirements (for funding, data storage and
management, analysis and reporting) necessary in a national more highly
coordinated and managed monitoring program.
Aim of the book
The book aims to improve the standard of monitoring for Australia’s threatened
biodiversity. It gathers the insights of some of the most experienced managers and
scientists involved with monitoring programs for threatened species and
communities in Australia, and focuses this experience in three ways:
- The book presents assessments of the extent and adequacy of current
monitoring activity across several species groups and ecological communities,
thus establishing a baseline against which future performance in monitoring
activity can be compared. - Using real case studies, the book chapters present practical advice to scientists
and managers to improve the quality of threatened biodiversity monitoring by:
➤ (^) demonstrating the benefits of monitoring (to decision makers, the public,
funders and managers)
➤ (^) improving the design of monitoring at the organisational and program
level
➤ (^) engaging constructively with different sectors of the community
➤ (^) ensuring that monitoring is integrated appropriately with management.
- The book presents an overview of the variation in organisational perspectives
to threatened monitoring programs, and outlines guiding principles to improve
the effectiveness of monitoring of threatened biodiversity.
The perspective of this book is ‘grass roots’: the chapters are contributed by
managers and scientists actively engaged with threatened biodiversity monitoring.
However, the collective experience and discussion presented in this book is relevant
also to policy makers and anyone with an interest in environmental management
more broadly. Most chapters focus on threatened species, but the learnings from
these chapters can also be applied to threatened ecological communities.
Structure of the book
The book arose from a workshop, hosted by the National Environmental Science
Programme’s Threatened Species Recovery Hub, which brought together almost 30