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Samuel review advocates better way to address threats to Australia’s natural wonders

The interim review of the national Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act finds that the law is failing to address the main threats to nature and proposes a new system for tackling current and emerging threats.

“We congratulate the reviewer Graeme Samuel for his plain-speaking assessment of the major failings of the EPBC Act in the face of a declining natural environment,” Invasive Species Council CEO Andrew Cox said today.

“This review should be the catalyst for less reactive, more comprehensive responses to Australia’s growing biodiversity crisis.

“The Invasive Species Council strongly supports the proposed reforms to strengthen the abatement of major threats to nature such as invasive species, inappropriate fire regimes and habitat destruction.

“In particular, we support the initiative to develop ‘strategic national plans’ to address major threats, prioritise investment and research and ensure action occurs across all levels of government.

“Similarly, the proposed ‘regional plans’ have the potential to address cumulative impacts, key threats and build environmental resilience at the landscape scale,” Mr Cox said.

The review found that ‘key threats to the environment are not effectively addressed’ and threat abatement plans are ‘not achieving their intent and many threats in Australia are worsening’.

This is consistent with the assessments of the Invasive Species Council, Threatened Species Scientific Committee, Australian Academy of Science and other organisations.

Mr Samuel highlighted that the limited resources for implementing the Act have meant ‘the Commonwealth has retreated to transactions, rather than “leading” strategically in the national interest.’

“On the negative side, the review has failed to recommend the listing of key threats as matters of national environmental significance and doesn’t clearly link key threats to the proposed national environmental standards.

“We strongly endorse Mr Samuel’s proposals for better including Indigenous Australians and the protection of their heritage as a core concern of the EPBC Act.

“We are greatly disappointed that the federal environment minister today ruled out Samuel’s proposal for an ‘independent monitoring, compliance, enforcement and assurance regulator’. This is essential for transparent and effective implementation of the EPBC Act and to regain the trust of the Australian community in environmental regulation.

“While the federal environment minister has flagged that her government will act on some areas in the interim report, we are keen to ensure that an improved approach to strategically addressing current and emerging threats is addressed when the report is finalised in October,” Mr Cox said.

The Invasive Species Council will continue to participate in the EPBC review process, identifying positive solutions for the major threats to nature.

The Invasive Species Council is a member of the Places you Love Alliance, which has been calling for a new generation of national environmental laws.

Image: Swift parrots are listed as critically endangered in Australia. Threats include loss of habitat, predation by cats and changes in habitat due to climate change. Photo: Judith Deland | Flickr | CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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Your support to protect critically endangered and vulnerable species from extinction is vital. Together, we can ensure governments prioritise action on invasive species and protect our wildlife and iconic places.

The Invasive Species Council was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to protect nature from harmful pests, weeds and diseases.

The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

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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]