19

Parks Australia monitoring for

threatened species

Kerrie Bennison, Judy West and Kim Hauselberger

Summary

Parks Australia manages Commonwealth (federal) terrestrial and marine reserves
that are geographically remote from each other and diverse in their ecosystems,
species and threatening processes. Management programs to promote the
conservation of threatened species are a large component of the annual work plan
of the reserves. The Commonwealth terrestrial reserve network protects 130
species listed as threatened under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act 1999. Each year, many intensive management programs are
undertaken to promote the conservation of these threatened species; most
programs focus on threat mitigation such as feral animal and weed control.
Monitoring of threatened species is essential to adapting management programs
and for assessing their cost-effectiveness. The approach to monitoring varies from
broad multi-species surveillance programs to programs targeting individual
species. A case study is presented to illustrate Parks Australia’s approach to a single