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World Heritage report delivers wake-up call on invasive species

The Invasive Species Council has warned that Australia is failing to meet its World Heritage obligations, as a new international report finds invasive species remain among the most destructive and widespread threats to Australia’s most treasured natural sites.

The 2025 IUCN World Heritage Outlook Report, released over the weekend, shows that invasive species and climate change are “by far the most prevalent current threats” to natural World Heritage sites in Oceania. In Australia, invasive species are rated as a current high or very high threat to 9 of the 12 sites listed for their ‘outstanding and universal’ biodiversity values.

‘This report is a wake-up call. Invasive species are tearing through the places that define Australia’s global reputation for natural beauty and outstanding biodiversity values,’ Invasive Species Council Policy Director Dr Carol Booth said. 

‘From feral cats hunting mammals in Kakadu, to fire-fuelling buffel grass taking over in Uluru and myrtle rust killing ancient trees in the Gondwana Rainforests – the damage is relentless and accelerating.

‘If we can’t defend our World Heritage sites, we’re failing at the most basic test of environmental protection.

‘Our environment laws still aren’t designed to deal systematically with the biggest threats to nature. The current EPBC Act reforms focus mainly on development approvals, but we also need urgent reform to strengthen how we prevent and control invasive species.

‘Strengthening live-import laws, driving a more systematic approach to threat abatement and establishing a dedicated fund to tackle catastrophic invasive threats would be both environmental and productivity reforms. 

‘When we invest properly, the results are remarkable. Macquarie Island, the only World Heritage site in Australia, and one of very few globally, to improve in the latest report, has rebounded spectacularly since rabbits and rodents were eradicated. We’ve seen the same success on Lord Howe and Dirk Hartog islands.

‘These examples prove what’s possible – wildlife bounces back fast when we remove the threats. What’s missing are the laws, leadership and long-term funding to make that the rule rather than the exception.

‘Australia’s World Heritage areas are more than just ecological treasures – they’re economic powerhouses that support tens of thousands of jobs. Rigorously defending them from threats is not only the right thing to do, it’s smart nation-building.

‘Australia’s World Heritage areas are worth billions to the economy and priceless to our identity. Protecting them is a test of leadership and national responsibility.’

Media inquiries: (02) 8006 5004

Photo: AAD.

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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]