Failure to Fund

The 2014-2015 Australian Budget’s Lack of Support for Biodiversity Conservation

                                                                                                                                                                     Martin Pueschel

The Problem

Over 1,700 ecological communities and their species are defined as threatened and at risk of extinction in Australia due to the degradation of the environment. According to the Australian government, this is due to –

The Australian government’s vision for biodiversity is to be valued both in its own right, as well as for its vital contribution to human existence, and to ensure that biodiversity remains healthy and resilient to threats http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/australias-biodiversity-conservation-strategy-summary. The question looming is why then has so little funding been allocated to solve these issues and reach the goals?

The Budget

Biodiversity loss requires funding to mitigate further loss (Ahrends, A., Burgess, N.D., Gereau, R.E., Marchant, R., Bulling, M.T., Lovett, J.C., Platts, P.J., Wilkins Kindemba, V., Owen, N., Fanning, E. & Rahbek, C. 2011, “Funding begets biodiversity”, Diversity and Distributions, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 191-200) yet here is nothing in the 2014-2015 Australian Budget about biodiversity conservation. Nothing. There isn’t a single cent of the Australian Budget being spent directly on biodiversity conservation http://www.budget.gov.au/2014-15/content/overview/download/Budget_Overview.pdf on page 27 and only a single page has been allocated to summarize environmental spendings.

The breakdown of environmental spendings within the 2014-2015 budget http://www.budget.gov.au/2014-15/content/bp2/html/bp2_expense-11.htm is more of a breakdown of environmental savings. Almost every section states how much the government will be saving over the next few years to put toward the repair of the budget and fund priorities. In addition to reducing funding, the government has allocated a total of less than $800 million dollars each year toward the environment (Text box 2). To put this into perspective, this amount is thirty times less than what the government has allocated to the Defence Force.

The 2014-2015 Budget Annual Break Down

The Impacts

The cuts to funding have threatened to severely impact biodiversity itself Amato, G. & DeSalle, R. 2012, “Assessing biodiversity funding during the sixth extinction”, BioEssays, vol. 34, no. 8, pp. 658-660 and the livelihood of many smaller environmental groups such as the Environmental Defenders Offices (EDO) who provide thousands of people each year with free legal advice on pollution, water issues, environmental and planning laws related to new building and mining developments and indigenous and heritage issues. Their lawyers are often also involved in attempts to prevent local extinctions of species due to clearing activities http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-18/funding-cut-to-environmental-defenders-offices/5164934.  Environmental groups such as these received virtually no notice of the funding cuts which has forced many of them to close their doors. The closure of these environmental groups has the potential impacts for an increase in the number of threatened species and extinctions with less funding to assist in their protection.

Funding the Future

Without government assistance the future of biodiversity in Australia has now fallen into the hands of Non-Government Organizations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_organizations#Australia as well as research through universities and generous donations. Biodiversity Conservation NGOs already play a critical role at all levels of biodiversity conservation as does the community sector which the government is also expecting to rise to the occasion http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/7f9e57ff-57be-4b64-a462-bf248c6f7087/files/id920-ncssa-05062009.pdf . The following steps in prioritizing funding for threatened species must be considered more so now than ever before –

What You Can Do

As an Australian citizen, we hold the right to vote, so next time you’re in the polling booth, make sure you’ve done your research into potential government leaders and their action plans toward budgeting for biodiversity conservation. Donating funds to conservation organizations and volunteering your time to help out will also be a step towards winning the fight against biodiversity loss in Australia.

Further Reading

Primack, R.B. 1992, Funding for Biodiversity Research, Blackwell Scientific Publications.

Williams, N. 2002, “Biodiversity challenge to funding priorities”, Current Biology, vol. 12, no. 12, pp. R405-R406.

By Katie McPherson u5450984 – Student of Biodiversity Conservation at the Australian National University

U4667034- Hayley Wood

6pm on a brisk Monday night, I find myself in the middle of a forest clearing, perched against a possible ant nest, rocking a high vis jacket. Armed with a pair of binoculars, my gaze has been diligently fixated upon a tree hollow for the past 20 minutes. I am convinced that at any minute now, a Sugar Glider will emerge and I will get to mark it down in my  trusty notebook- my goal for the evening.

I am undertaking work experience with the Environmental Planning and Assessment department of the Shoalhaven city council in Nowra. We are surveying animal species inhabiting the forest on a stretch of council land near Falls Creek. The council has put forward a proposal for a new recycling plant to be built in this area, which will require a threatened species assessment, and reports that comply with the standards set by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. The Council’s Threatened Species Officers have kindly allowed me to come along to their site inspection where they are reviewing flora and fauna in the area to assess the impact which the proposed development will have on the species which inhabit this region.

With two experienced Threatened Species Officers stationed at other vantage points within the surrounding bush, our goal is to observe the corridors used by  Gliders as they glide from tree to tree. This is an impressive feat, as The Sugar and Squirrel Gliders are capable of travelling up to 50 metres in a single leap, while The Yellow-bellied Glider can cover a distance of 140 metres!

After a few hours spent on the lookout for these furry critters, I have yet to see one, (although the others have already spotted three, so I may not have a very good eye for spotting gliders). As the Sugar Gliders seem to be hiding, we go in search for them. By shining torches through the trees to try to spot the eye shine of any marsupials which may be hanging around, we manage to locate five Sugar Gliders. The location coordinates of where the animals are found are recorded using a GPS tracking device which provides insight into their movement and travel corridors. At the end of the night, the locations of where the gliders were found are assessed, and it is decided that any developments within the area must leave the trees by the roadside intact, as they provide a means for Gliders to travel across the roads.

Up bright and early, the following morning finds us travelling to St George’s Basin in order to locate a known patch of Pterostylis Ventricosa. This is a critically endangered species of orchid with a geographical distribution restricted to the south coast region. The idea behind finding this location, where the orchid has been known to grow is to use it as a point of reference.

Pterostylis Ventricosa only produces buds at certain times of the year, therefore by travelling to this location we are able to check to see if the buds have sprouted yet, and also to take photos and view exactly what we are searching for. Upon arrival at the site, we manage to locate both buds and flowers which serve as a model for what we will be searching for at the site of the proposed development.

Once feeling confident in our ability to identify the buds of this species, we move to the assessment site. After scouring the areas which provide habitat similarity to the one we had witnessed in St George’s basin for buds, we find no signs of Pterostylis Ventricosa on the premises.
This whole exercise has given me some amazing insight into the practical application of conservation. It is amazing to see the amount of time and energy which goes into species protection, and I am so grateful to have been a small part of it.

References

https://www.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au/Environment/Biodiversity/Threatened-species
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/animals/Glidingpossums.htm
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/determinations/pterostylisventricosaFD.htm

u5333620

The Place

Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve (TNR) provides a range of educational, recreational and conservation opportunities. It is a popular bushwalking and animal-watching destination. The Northern Corroboree Frog and Southern Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby captive breeding programs, are among the park’s conservation initiatives.

We met a hand-reared S. Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby

The Project

Kunzea is a native shrub which can become invasive. At Tidbinbilla, past land-use and fires facilitated its colonisation. The first population boom, in the 60s, resulted from the clearing followed by removal of sheep from the area¹. Another catalyst for their proliferation were the 2003 bushfires², because their lignotubers enable fast recovery[1]. The increased prevalence of Kunzea is problematic because:

1. It reduces grass-feed for native animals[2]
2. It could reduce floristic diversity¹, and
3. It provides fuel for wildfires¹.

I helped with a Kunzea ericoides and bird mapping project to inform conservation of ecological corridors. Insectivorous birds are particularly reliant on Kunzea for habitat and food, and the aim is to reserve the most critical patches. I mapped for six days around the Tidbinbilla Information Visitor Centre (TIVC) & Birrigai.

Lessons in…

Surveys

This experience gave me a taste of fieldwork, and its associated challenges. On the first day, I was given many things to carry and left with the instruction: ‘do it however you feel comfortable’. Initially, I mapped individual plants, still hopeful that a protocol would be provided, before realising it wouldn’t and experimenting with transects. I found myself zigzagging the plains. Flagging tape was my lifeline, but it was sometimes obscured by the undulating terrain and vegetation. A system of mapping developed using notebook (with a table of maturity, density, transect #, waypoint and observations) and a GPS. B[3] assured me that it would all come out in the wash. I never saw it happen due to ArcGIS problems, however I imagine there would be much time spent deciphering/entering my data. I didn’t realise I was meant to plan the survey, so hadn’t done any preparation – such as reading or site scouting. If I could do it again, I would develop a loose protocol before starting, and adapt. I would recruit more people to increase efficiency, knowledge and enjoyment. I might conduct seasonal surveys – to see the effect of flowering, for example. Additionally I’d investigate technology, such as transect tapes/wires, and waterproof GPS with better note-taking capabilities to improve data security and legibility. It would also help to look at the mapping software, e.g. ArcGIS, before designing the survey. B. repeatedly told me that fieldwork is best learnt by experience, this lesson itself is valuable and comes from experience.

Flagging tape on a young Kunzea

  Ecosystem Connectivity

My experience allowed me to see systems within the environment. Birds nested in the eucalyptus canopy, swooping down to catch insects floating around the Kunzea. This demonstrated complex habitat use. There were other animals at my site that may be affected by Kunzea removal: pigs, wombats, emus, rabbits. The effect weed removal will have on pest species is unclear but needs to be monitored and managed to mitigate risks. My experience made me reflect on the difficulty of effectively researching and managing an ecosystem –when one species alone is hard enough.

Foreground: Emus enjoy a bush-tucker tuber. Background: Kunzea

[1] Kirschbaum, S. B. & Williams, D. G., 1991. Colonization of pasture by Kunzea ericoides in the Tidbinbilla Valley, ACT, Australia. Australian Journal of Ecology, 16:79-90 [2] TAMS, 2012. Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, Birrigai Plan of Management, ACT Government, available: http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/di/2012-193/current/pdf/2012-193.pdf [3] TNR Ranger

-Joe Foskett, u5012240

Greening Australia is an NGO, a non-profit organisation that is not a part of any government body—although in this case, it very often works with the Australian government.  It has many projects, all centred on the goal of keeping the natural Australian landscape alive and flourishing.  This doesn’t mean to simply hang on to existing reserves, but to establish further ones.  They have a long list of ambitious projects to establish reserves across the continent.  These potential reserves have an emphasis on connectivity, stretching thousands of kilometres across many biomes.

Source

All of this costs money, of course.   A decent chunk of GA’s revenues come from selling seeds and plants—$64 000 in 2013, and $120 000 in 2014.  I worked in Aranda on Wednesday mornings.  The point of the job was to maintain the quality of the nursery; during summer, this work is mostly thinning and cleaning, and as the weather gets cooler and wetter there’s a shift towards planting.  More specifically it involved going through dozens and dozens of small potted plants—trees and bushes, mostly—and removing anything which shouldn’t be there.  Some of the plants had died and were removed entirely.  The majority were then divided by size, to leave the like plants together.  Any instances of multiple seeding were also removed.

It was satisfying work.  We worked with many different species, and each tended to attract different hangers-on—this one weeds, this one some sort of clover, this one a thick moss.  The bulbs which had failed to sprout were simply left behind.  This was all performed with a short wooden stake.  There is something very basically satisfying about creating rows of neat, orderly plants, even if it’s not the most natural configuration.  There was a very nice communal atmosphere, with about 15 others working there most mornings.

These plants are either used in conservation projects, or sold to fund Greening Australia’s activities.  The second of these might sound a little dry, but it doesn’t have to be; the group is eager to get the buyers interested and involved in native wildlife.  In March of this year, for instance, they began selling native plants at the markets in Pilbara WA— which then led to a series of workshops on propagating and caring for native plants.  For me, it was good to see basic, community-level conservation work in action.

My work experience involved two days of fieldwork with the NSW Parks and Wildlife Services Pests and Weeds Team learning about a variety of pest control management options currently being explored or used in the Tinderry Nature Reserve and throughout the Brindabellas.

Feral goats are more common around the ACT and its surrounding regions than what I previously expected. Their over abundance creates a wide range of significant ecological issues such as – competition with native herbivores, intense destruction of foliage and soil erosion due to decreases in plant cover. The existing methods of feral goat control are either inefficient or too costly for the current scale of environmental damage.

In order to tackle these issues a specially designed feed structure has been developed by Rob Hunt, whom I conducted my work experience with. This project looks at the use of an ungulate-specific feed structure as a potential tool for controlling feral goats in Australia’s forest ecosystems. The Tinderry Nature Reserve is the location for the development of this project, a sub-alpine bushland with forest and coastal shrubland spread throughout a mountainous terrain.

THE FEED STRUCTURE: 

The feed structures currently being developed for this project are unique in the sense that they use a steel grid mesh to exploit differences in foot size and structure between the main non-target species (native macropods) and feral goats and the occasional red and fellow deer. The distinctive size and shape of a feral goat’s foot allows it to step on the steel mesh, triggering the feed structure to open and enable it to gain access to a salt block. They love to lick these blocks, as the minerals in the salt are deficient in their natural environment. The overall objective of the salt blocks is to eventually incorporate cyanide with them, providing a quick and humane death for the pest animals. The cage has been specially designed so that macropods such as the Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Swamp Wallaby, Wombat and Brush Tail Possum can’t gain accesses to the salt blocks.

Ungulate-specific feed structure

The feeding sites have been designed so that large populations of goats can interact with the cage area; this brings with it the potential for improved aerial shooting methods, as the goats would be located in large numbers around cleared sites.

WILD DOG CONTROL:

The second day of my work experience involved travelling into the Brindabella ranges to locate areas of wild dog activity. Once a site was selected we set up 4 different ejector traps, although they only had strawberry jam in them. These bait head ejectors were made of slow cooked deer, this had a very strong scent. Once the traps were set along game trails a camera was positioned next to the bait in order to monitor wild dog activity in the area. Wild dogs throughout these mountains and Australia bring enormous pressure on farmers as they target livestock. These ejector traps are widely used around Australia for both livestock protection and conservation means.

Wild dog mechanical ejector

Conclusion:

Over the course of my work experience I learnt a great deal about pest management around the ACT and NSW and how some of these projects have been adapted and introduced nation wide. They way certain species are being targeted is a great example of adaptive management.

I’d like to thank Rob Hunt for sharing his copious amounts of expertise with me.

u5349776

References:

Hunt R, Claridge A, Fleming P, Cunningham R, Russell B, Mills D, (2014), “Use of an angulate-specific feed structure as a potential tool for controlling feral goats in Australian forest ecosystems”, Ecology Management and Restoration, V:15

Short clip on mechanical ejectors for wild dogs and foxes – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tdq7FKxeO8

The impacts of the civil war on the African Forest Elephants in Liberia- U5503457

In December, 2009, there was an outbreak of civil war which commenced from a little border town-Liberia Ivory Coast and escalated throughout the entire country. This led to a massive exodus of the African elephants from the Ziama-Wenegisi corridor which includes the Ziama classified forest in Guinea and the Wenegisi national forest in Liberia, a bordering forest shared between Guinea and Liberia.Migration of elephants from Wenegisi to Ziama was noted during the war in Liberia, Sambola (2005). Conflicts and other anthropogenic activities for example, logging, illicit hunting, mining, urbanization, shifting cultivation are causes of wildlife extinction and or migration. (Afkinsider.com/threat-of –wildlife-extinction).

I was amazed when I watched these elephants migrating into the Ziama forest in guinea live on the Guinean National television (action news) in 1996. The elephants form part of the features that make Liberia a biodiversity hotspot of conservation concern in West Africa. National park and other nature reserves have been established for the conservation and multiplication of these endangered species. National Parks of Liberia “Www. National-parks-worldwide.info/Liberia.htm”.

 The impacts of the civil war on the African Forest Elephants in Liberia

Figure 1 African elephants have less room to roam than ever before as civil war, poaching for bush meat and ivory increased proportionally with an increase in human population. Source: WWF: African elephant species. http://www.worldwidelife.org/species/forest-elephant.

Habitat loss

African elephants inhabit high rainforests and feed on non-timber forest products (NTFP), such as, nuts (e.g. makore and pentadesma seeds); forest vegetables (e.g. palm cabbage, flower bud of musanga tree commonly called cork wood). The huge falling sound of felled giant tropical rainforest trees (diameter 100-200 +cm), the power chain saws, bulldozers, earth moving equipment during the illegal logging operations led to habitat loss. Illicit hunting of elephants for bush meat and ivory/tusk by local people and foreign nationals as well as the sound of heavy artilleries contributed to elephant migration into the Ziama forest in Guinea. A significant area of habitat was destroyed due to the logging operations carried out by the warlords as means of income to fuel the war. Consequently a massive exodus of elephants occurred. This was disastrous for Liberia, because elephants play a greater role in sustaining the ecosystem. They help propagate tropical rainforest trees like makore and others, these trees’ seeds can only germinate by passing through the elephants’ digestive track, and germinate directly from the elephant dunk.

Figure 2 Elephants are found in dense forest and are essential for the germination of many rainforest trees. These seeds germinate after passing through the elephant’s digestive track. Source: http://www.worldwidelife.org/species/forest-elephant “WWF: African forest elephant species

The effects of elephant exodus

Human-elephant divergence is one of the key challenges noted by local services in the area of elephant management. Human-elephant conflict originates from crop looting by elephants. During the migration of elephants into the Ziama forest in Guinea, they raided all crops in the villages and towns located around and within the migrating corridor. That was a disaster for the locals in Guinea, but on the other hand, elephants propagated some trees species seeds in the Ziama forest. Ecologically, the species composition of the ziama forest improved and the elephant population increased for Guinea. While Liberia on the other hand lost huge population of elephants.

It is about time that every Liberian be conscious about the role elephants play in the provision of the ecosystem services, by exhibiting a high sense of conservation responsibility to maintain the natural heritage (elephant).

References

Afkinsider.com/threat-of-wildlife-extinction.

Sambola, 2005. Action Plan for the management of elephants in the Ziama-Wenegisi Trans frontier Corridor. IUCN- ‘The world Conservation, 2006’

http://www.National –Parks-worldwide.info/Liberia.htm: www.African Elephant Species

http://www.worldwidelife/forest-elephant.

Mist netting is a nice methodology for assessing flying wildlife, especially birds and bats. The outcomes of the mist netting can be used in a wide variety of activities, including migratory surveys, population census, health/viability of given populations, conservation studies and so on.

Mist nets generally consists in a wall of thin line with the aim of capturing birds or bats while they are flying. Beyond that, this big wall has smaller divisions called ‘shelf’ which are fundamental parts of the net where the animal will stay caught (it is so for the specimens don’t get to tangled in the lines and also lessens the harm and stress inflicted to them) until the responsible scientist comes to release it from the trap in order to collect all the possible data (not only the data he needs for a particular study, but all the information that can be extracted from the animal so it won’t need to be caught again and go through all the stress once more if the scientists decides to test another hypothesis). The length, height, line thickness and the spaces within the mesh can vary significantly, according to the focus prey and the environment where the study is going to happen. For an example, thicker lines are used more often to catch bats as they would chew thinner ones more easily; and smaller nets are ideal for areas where the vegetation is denser, so it don’t get stuck in the branches and become more conspicuous for the animals (and they won’t avoid it).

But only trapping the animals is not enough to gather all the information needed to activities cited before, we also need to individualize the animals and the most common methodology regarding birds is to band or tag them (but this second one is used only for big strong animals which are not captured by mist nets). Bird banding helps us to follow focal specimens and we can tell how are they doing over the time: if they are getting weight, if the population is declining or not, the sex ration of a given population, the adult-infant ratio and a huge variety of other important variables.

I am part of an ornithological laboratory within the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in the Northeast of Brazil. One of our major projects is conducted in the only Brazilian endemic biome, known as Caatinga and we use thin medium-sized mist nets for trapping birds and metal bands to identify and individualize them. And apart from being in the other side of the globe, I have done some field work here in Canberra (at the Botanic Gardens) and the methodology and material used are very similar: the nets are extended between wooden or aluminium poles tied with ropes to a tree or rock and observed by a safe distance (far enough to be hidden from the birds) until an animal hits the net. Another strategy to improve the mist netting success is to use playbacks for attract some birds. In my experience at the Botanic Gardens, we played the call of a target species which attracted only that species, reduced the impact of bycatch (it is pointless to capture a species that is not the focus of the study), and optimized the time spent on the field.

To sum up, mist netting is a useful and efficient technique which also improves our contact with the wildlife in a way that benefits both sides – improves our understanding of wild populations and makes it easier to conserve and protect them.

References:

• Banks, J. E., Banks, H. T., Rinnovatore, K., & Jackson, C. M. (2015). Optimal sampling frequency and timing of threatened tropical bird populations: A modeling approach. Elsevier, 70–77.
• Desante, D. F., Burton, K. M., Saracco, J. F., & Walker, B. L. (1995). Productivity indices and survival rate estimates from MAPS, a continent-wide programme of constant-effort mist-netting in North America. Journal of Applied Statistics, 935-948.
• Maas, B., Tscharntke, T., Saleh, S., Putra, D. D., & Clough, Y. (2015). Avian species identity drives predation success in tropical cacao agroforestry. Journal of Aplied Ecology, 1-9.