5

The extent and adequacy of

monitoring for Australian threatened

frog species

Benjamin C. Scheele and Graeme R. Gillespie

Summary

This chapter assesses the extent and adequacy of monitoring efforts for 33
threatened frog species in Australia. The assessment provides a stocktake of
current monitoring efforts and identifies areas for improvement. Each species was
assessed using the nine monitoring evaluation metrics presented in Chapter 2.
About a quarter of all threatened frogs receive no monitoring. In particular,
monitoring information tended to be poorly reported and only weakly linked to
management for most species. Species scores for design quality and information on
demographic parameters were highly variable, with species in higher threat
categories and with active recovery plans scoring better. Two-thirds of monitoring
programs are undertaken by state government agencies, with one-third of
programs undertaken by university-based researchers. Limited resources are the
primary constraint impeding greater monitoring efforts, and resource allocation