Islands are critical habitat for around one third of Australia’s threatened animal species but also especially at risk from invasive species.
Our Work | Islands
Australia has more than 8300 islands, ranging in size from Tasmania to small rock stacks. These islands play a vital and unique role in the conservation of Australia’s native plants and animals.
Many island species are found nowhere else. In some cases, islands are the last refuge for species extinct on the Australian mainland. For marine turtles and seabirds, islands are essential to their existence. The conservation of Australia’s islands is therefore an essential part of protecting our natural heritage.
However, many islands are plagued by invasive pests and weeds that put our precious native biodiversity at risk. Of the 20 Australian birds most likely to become extinct in the next 20 years, six are confined to islands. Islands are critical habitat for around one-third of Australia’s threatened animal species. Alarmingly, many of our threatened island species are not subject to rigorous recovery plans.
Island environments are especially at risk from invasive species – from the rats that arrived with the early settlers to the invasive ants that have more recently slipped through our quarantine system. Invasive species pose a threat to unique island species and ecosystems, reduce the ability of island environments to withstand the effects of climate change, and often make life annoying or miserable for island people.
Fortunately, the tools and techniques needed to eradicate or control invasive species and to prevent their spread are available. They have been successfully used hundreds of times in Australia and around the world.
Removing the threat of invasive species on islands is a unique opportunity to prevent the extinction of many species and restore healthy island ecosystems.
We’re working with the Norfolk Island community to control invasive pests and stop the introduction of potential new pest species. We are also supporting a project to map the vegetation of Norfolk Island for the first time.
The eradication of all rodents from the magnificent and World Heritage listed Lord Howe Island is planned for winter 2019. We are working in partnership with the Lord Howe Island Board to promote the eradication project.
We are producing research and policy analysis to identify weaknesses in Australia’s island biosecurity and environmental legislation. Our recent report on Australia’s failure to abate biodiversity threats has numerous examples of how we are failing to protect our unique island biodiversity from invasive species.
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. The Invasive Species Council supports voting ‘YES’ for a Voice to Parliament.
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.
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.
