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‘A blueprint for failure’: Threatened species plan slammed

The Invasive Species Council has slammed Tasmania’s draft Threatened Species Strategy as a missed opportunity to stop extinctions, warning it fails to address the biggest threats of biodiversity loss – including invasive species.

The Council says the draft strategy is a vague, high-level document that risks locking in further decline by avoiding the hard decisions needed to tackle threats head-on.

‘There’s a real irony at the heart of this – a threatened species strategy that doesn’t meaningfully deal with threats,’ Invasive Species Council Conservation Officer, Dr Tiana Pirtle said. 

‘Right now, species are being driven to the brink by well-known threats, yet this document barely deals with threats at all. That’s a blueprint for failure.

‘We know threatened species are threatened due to underlying pressures – whether that’s invasive species, habitat loss or disease. If those pressures aren’t clearly identified and addressed, we won’t see meaningful recovery.

‘One of the most significant gaps is the absence of a clear process to identify and prioritise key threatening processes, and a commitment to act on them.

‘There are also no measurable targets, timeframes or monitoring framework, which makes it difficult to assess whether the strategy is working or delivering outcomes.

‘The previous strategy recognised that managing threats is the most effective way to protect species. That principle needs to be reinstated here.

The Council is calling for the strategy to be strengthened to ensure it can drive real conservation outcomes, including:

  • A clear, threat-based framework that identifies and prioritises key threatening processes
  • Commitment to the development and implementation of threat abatement plans
  • Measurable, time-bound targets to track progress and ensure accountability
  • Long-term, sustained funding and clear government leadership

‘Without these elements, there is a real risk that the strategy will continue the gap between intent and implementation that has been identified in previous approaches.

‘With the right changes, followed by a long-term commitment of resourcing, Environment Minister Madeleine Ogilvie has an opportunity to provide a strong foundation for reversing species decline – but it needs to be grounded in the drivers of that decline and backed by clear action.’

Media inquiries: (02) 8006 5004

Image: Fallow deer damage near Miena. Credit: Nicole-Anderson.

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    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]


    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]