14

The multiple benefits of monitoring

threatened species: Leadbeater’s

possum as a case study

David B. Lindenmayer

Summary

Monitoring programs for threatened species are not only important for improving
conservation actions for those species, but they also can have additional
ecological, social and even policy and political benefits. This is demonstrated in
this chapter using a case study of the 34-year monitoring program for the
Critically Endangered Leadbeater’s possum Gymnobelidues leadbeateri in the
montane ash forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria in south-eastern
Australia. The long-term monitoring program for Leadbeater’s possum has
yielded important insights into the ecology and conservation of the target species,
as well as for a suite of other species of arboreal marsupials in montane ash
forests. It also has provided greater understanding of the montane ash forest
ecosystem per se. Empirical data from the monitoring program have been used in