Birds Australia, Charles Darwin University and CSIRO Publishing today launched The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010. The Action Plan is the third in a series that have been produced at the start of each decade. It analyses the status of all the species and subspecies of Australia's birds to determine their risk of extinction.

“At one level this book describes a tragedy,” said Dr Graeme Hamilton, CEO of Birds Australia, “That in the 200 short years since Europeans arrived in Australia we have so diminished our natural capital that 234 Australian birds are either Extinct, threatened with extinction or Near Threatened, is a national disgrace”.

But this is not a book of lost causes. It is a call for action to keep the extraordinary biodiversity we have inherited and pass the legacy to our children. Every one of Australia's threatened birds can be saved.

“We do not need to lose any more Australian birds,” said Barry Baker, President of Birds Australia. “This book describes the populations of species at greatest risk and outlines ways we can turn them around.”

There is much reason to hope. We would have lost far more had there not been enormous effort over the last few decades. After all, it is only 20 years since all the information available on Australia’s threatened birds was compiled in the first Action Plan for Australian Birds

The status of some birds has improved over the last two decades as a result of dedicated conservation management. Some may not have improved their lot but at least they are holding their own. Many, however, are continuing to decline and a distressing number are new to the list.

While Birds Australia members and many others in the community are willing to devote substantial portions of their lives to helping threatened birds, many birds also need professional help. That takes money.

“Sadly, over the last decade, threatened species conservation appears to have gone out of fashion with government policy makers and public funding bodies”. According to Dr Hamilton, instead of species conservation, emphasis is being placed on landscapes without the necessary attention to the precious detail those landscapes contain. “We at Birds Australia do not share that view,” he said. “We, like the majority of the public, believe that a vital role for conservation agencies is the prevention of species loss.

“If we as a nation fail to take the actions spelled out in this plan, Australia will be a poorer place in which to live.”

Background

The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 is the third in a series of action plans that have been produced at the start of each decade. The book analyses the status of all the species and subspecies of Australia's birds to determine their risk of extinction.

Based on the latest research and consultation with leading ornithologists and conservation biologists around the country, the result is the most authoritative account yet of the status of Australia's birds.

The research was supported by an Australian Research Council linkage grant to Charles Darwin and Queensland Universities. BirdLife International, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and Biosis also provided support.

Findings

This Action Plan lists 27 taxa as Extinct, 20 as Critically Endangered, 60 as Endangered, 68 as Vulnerable and 63 as Near Threatened as at 31 December, 2010. Of bird taxa known to have been present or to have occurred regularly in Australia when Europeans settled in 1788, 2.2% are Extinct and a further 11.8% are threatened.

Some Good News

Since the 2000 Action Plan was released, the conservation status of seven taxa will be downlisted as a result of effective conservation management:
 
1.    Gouldian Finch (numbers have increased so much in the last decade that they can be moved from Endangered to Near Threatened. They have benefited at some sites from better fire management and conservative stocking rates)
2.    The Southern Cassowary;
3.    Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle; and
4.    Albert’s Lyrebird; have all benefited greatly from habitat protection
5.    Abbott’s Booby and
6.    The Christmas Island Hawk-Owl shifted from Critically Endangered to Vulnerable as a result action to control invasive ants.
7.    The Southern subspecies of Western Corella (has increased so much as a result of effective law enforcement and habitat protection that it has been shifted from Endangered to Least Concern)

Mostly Bad news

Since 2000, 39 taxa have been uplisted to a more threatened category because they are faring worse than they were a decade ago. This includes four taxa that are now Critically Endangered:
 
1.    Grey-headed Albatross
2.    Western Ground Parrot
3.    Regent Honeyeater
4.    Norfolk Island Tasman Parakeet

Causes

Most of the additions to the list in 2010 are migratory waders, numbers of which have plummeted, largely due to reclamation or degradation of habitat along their migratory pathways in East Asia.

Most threatened or extinct taxa continue to be on islands. Introduced predators and habitat destruction have taken a heavy toll. At sea, despite progress in developing and implementing mitigation techniques, all albatross taxa and several petrels continue to be threatened by high rates of mortality associated with fishing.

On the mainland, land clearance and habitat fragmentation will continue to cause species declines for decades as biodiversity pays its extinction debt. Grazing by domestic and feral herbivores, and changes in fire management are also major threatening processes.