Reporting Australia’s forest biodiversity II: threatened forest-dwelling and forest-dependent species

ABSTRACT

Conservation assessment information prepared to support the listing or recovery of threatened species provides a comprehensive evidence base for analysing the status of, and threats to, threatened species, as required for indicator-based national and international ‘state of the forests’ reporting. A database on threatened forest-dwelling species in Australia was therefore developed for the National Forest Inventory, from an existing database of forest-dwelling species. At December 2012, a total of 1352 forest-dwelling plant and animal species were listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable under the national Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, with a further 79 forest-dwelling species listed as Extinct. Forest-dwelling species comprise 80% of the threatened species listed under this Act, while forest-dependent species represent 48%. The main driver of these high proportions is the estimated halving of Australia’s forest area since European settlement in 1788, primarily as a result of forest clearing for agricultural, urban, industrial and infrastructure development, and the consequent focus on forest-dwelling threatened species in conservation planning and research. The most common categories of threat to forest-dwelling species identified in the listing documentation were land-use change resulting from agricultural clearing and urbanisation, unsuitable fire regimes, invasive species, and the combinations of these. In comparison, forestry operations as a category of threat ranked 9^th out of 11 threat categories for forest-dwelling fauna and 11^th out of 11 threat categories for forest-dwelling flora. Genetics threats (e.g. small population size, fragmentation, low genetic diversity, hybridisation or low fecundity) are given as major listing reasons for many forest-dwelling species, particularly birds, invertebrates and plants. Specifying effective approaches to measuring the performance of recommended management measures in threatened species listing statements and recovery plans would improve reporting of indicators using threatened species. Increased monitoring and reporting of the status of threatened species in the reserve system, and of threats impacting on species in the reserve system, would also significantly improve Australia’s capacity to report on the status of and trends for threatened forest-dwelling species. Collection of rigorous data that is usable for monitoring population trends of threatened forest-dwelling species will continue to be important for their ongoing management, as well as rigorous research into the threats that impact on these species.

KEYWORDS:

• threatened species
• forest biodiversity
• forest-dwelling species
• forest-dependent species
• forestry operations
• threatening processes and agents
• forest indicators
• biodiversity conservation

Acknowledgements

Francis O’Brien and Rebecca McPhee significantly contributed to the development and compilation of the threatened species National Forest Inventory databases used in the analysis. Ian Frakes and Geoff Dunn provided analysis and mapping support. The collaboration of the Department of the Environment and Energy team supporting the SPRAT Database, answering questions and facilitating access and mapping outputs is gratefully acknowledged. Access to Atlas of Living Australia databases is also acknowledged. Steve Read and Claire Howell provided valuable comment on this manuscript. Custodianship for the databases reported here resides with the National Forest Inventory, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, Canberra.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.