Evaluation of responses to threats to Australia’s biodiversity

Product Information

The National Land and Water Resources Audit (NLWRA) initiated this project as part of the 2008 NLWRA National Biodiversity Assessment. The overall objective of the project was to:

Assess the biodiversity outcomes of selected institutional responses to the threats to Australia’s terrestrial biodiversity.

In this context, the aim was to examine a range of institutional measures that are implemented nationally and in various states, territories and regions to combat key threats. The report of the evaluation will be used by the NLWRA to inform an overall assessment of trends in biodiversity and the effectiveness of various institutional responses to threats. It will complement a set of case studies being conducted by the states and territories to examine biodiversity outcomes of their key mechanisms for biodiversity management.
In conjunction with the project Steering Committee, the following ten case studies were selected to represent a range of institutions and responses to threats to biodiversity.

• The Queensland Vegetation Management Act 1999
  
  

• The Tasmanian Midlands component of the Biodiversity Hotspots Program
  
  

• Land for Wildlife, Victoria
  
  

• Bush Heritage Australia
  
  

• Living Landscapes, Western Australia
  
  

• The Cotton industry
  
  

• Breathe Easy, Greening Australia
  
  

• The NT NRM region
  
  

• The Kuka Kanyini Watarru project, South Australia
  
  

• Brisbane City Council

As nearly 70% of Australia is in private hands, and many of the current institutional responses are targeted at private land managers, the majority of case studies focus on achieving biodiversity outcomes on private land. The material informing the case studies was based on desk-top research and interviews with four main ‘stakeholder’ groups associated with each case study: those responsible for developing the response; those responsible for implementing the response; those affected by the response and those observing/assessing the response. Several challenges arose in the identification and coordination of stakeholder interviews, largely associated with the timing of the project over the summer holidays.