Page 1729 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 7 June 2016
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ecologically significant threatening processes and recommend that they be declared accordingly. A species may be declared vulnerable or endangered as an indication of the degree of threat to its continued existence.
Currently the formal declaration of a species is published in a notifiable instrument on the ACT legislation register, and the Conservator of Flora and Fauna is required to prepare a management response to each declaration by way of an action plan. A draft of each action plan must be released for public comment.
The difficulty with the current legislation is that it treats the ACT as though the status of species was independent of the species in surrounding New South Wales or even the rest of Australia. Unfortunately, or fortunately, as we all know, the ACT is not an island for the purposes of managing threatened species.
Based on 2014 Canberra Ornithologists Group data, the 11 species of listed birds in the ACT give a good idea of the complexity of the issues. First, the little eagle is declared vulnerable in the ACT and New South Wales but is not currently listed by the federal government. Second, the glossy black cockatoo is declared vulnerable in the ACT and New South Wales but also is not currently listed by the federal government. Third, the superb parrot is declared vulnerable in the ACT and New South Wales and nationally. Four, the swift parrot is declared endangered in the ACT and New South Wales and nationally. Five, the brown treecreeper is declared vulnerable in the ACT and New South Wales but is not currently listed by the federal government.
Six, the regent honeyeater is declared endangered in the ACT and across Australia and is critically endangered in New South Wales. Seven, the painted honeyeater is declared vulnerable in the ACT and New South Wales but is not listed currently by the federal government. Eight, the varied sittella is declared vulnerable in the ACT and New South Wales but also is not listed by the federal government. Nine, the white-winged triller is declared vulnerable in the ACT but is not listed in New South Wales or nationally. Ten, the hooded robin is declared vulnerable in the ACT and New South Wales but is not listed in Australia. Finally, 11, the scarlet robin was only listed recently as vulnerable in the ACT.
The scarlet robin is one of my favourite birds that I find on the hills behind my house in Tuggeranong. It occurs in all Australian states and the ACT, and it is now listed as vulnerable in New South Wales and the ACT and rare in South Australia. The ACT state faunal emblem, the gang-gang cockatoo, conversely is listed as vulnerable in New South Wales but is of no identified concern in the ACT. It is also common in the forests of the Victorian Alps.
Of course, birds are mobile. Some migrate and some slowly colonise new regions. The little eagle nests in the ACT and, while adults tend to stay in a home territory, the longest distance travelled by one bird studied was over 2,800 kilometres. The whole swift parrot population breeds in Tasmania, and most birds winter in the woodlands of southern Australia. Some swift parrots winter in the flowering gums in Canberra suburbs. Superb parrots are typically mobile inland New South Wales birds and have small and increasing populations in northern Canberra, including Belconnen and Gungahlin.
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