The Invasive Species Council welcomes the opportunity to comment on the proposed Tasmanian Threatened Species Strategy and look forward to further engagement during the next phase of the strategy development.
Invasive species remain one of the most significant threats causing extinctions and declines of Tasmanian biodiversity, as well as necessitating costly and disruptive eradication programs to protect agriculture and trade. Unfortunately, the number of detections and incursions of potentially invasive species in Tasmania are increasing from trade and tourism, and established invasive species continue to cause ecological damage.
In recognition of the threats invasive species pose to threatened flora and fauna in Tasmania, the Invasive Species Council has made 8 recommendations for the proposed Threatened Species Strategy.
Recommendations:
Recommendation 1: Set an ambitious goal of no new extinctions in Tasmania, in line with the federal government’s commitment.
Recommendation 2: Develop and implement a dedicated Island Recovery program, focusing on feasible eradication of invasive species from priority off-shore islands, including eradicating feral cats from lungtalanana/Clark island, feral deer and cats from Bruny and King Islands, and feral pigs from Flinders Islands.
Recommendation 3: Develop and strengthen Threat Abatement Plans and planning for Tasmania, as well as supporting and implementing relevant federal Threat Abatement Plans. As part of this, the Tasmanian Government should:
- Comprehensively identify and list key threatening processes through an independent scientific process, supplemented by a public nomination process. Regularly review the list of threats to ensure it remains up to date.
- List threats in a hierarchical scheme of key threatening processes and environmental threats of state significance. Establish an additional threat category – emerging threatening processes.
- Design a fit-for-purpose abatement response for all listed threats, including threat abatement plans or action plans (e.g. for cross-sectoral threats), regional plans, and policy and regulatory responses.
- Establish an implementation taskforce for each major threat response, with a coordinator to drive implementation of plans for the priority threats. Facilitate collaborations by governments, Traditional Owners and community and cross-sectoral stakeholders on abating major threats.
- Systematically monitor and report on threat abatement progress. Introduce independent oversight of the threat abatement system.
- Substantially increase public spending on threat abatement and threatened species recovery, and allocate funds based on a transparent prioritisation process.
Recommendation 4: Identify fallow deer as a priority established invasive species for management to protect threatened species and ecosystems and take actions including:
- Commence control programs on satellite populations where eradication of feral deer is clearly achievable, including the Tasman and Freycinet Peninsulas, on Bruny and King Islands, around Hobart, Launceston, and in the northwest.
- Appoint six regional feral deer coordinators to work with landholders and the community to scale up feral deer control activities.
- Ensure stronger enforcement of deer farming regulations to prevent reinvasion or new populations of deer.
- Maintain the commitment to eradicate deer from the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and ensure no new populations are allowed to establish.
- Declare feral deer a pest species.
Recommendation 5: Identify feral and roaming pet cats as a priority established invasive species for management to protect threatened fauna and take actions including:
- Declare feral cats a pest species.
- Prioritise feral cat eradications on off-shore islands, such as lungtalanana/Clark Island
- Strengthen cat containment legislation, funding and policies, including through: promoting the uptake of cat prohibition zones and cat containment by local governments,
- mandating prohibition zones in areas of high conservation value,
- supporting community education and enforcement of cat containment policies, desexing and pet registration.
- Develop and implement a comprehensive state-wide feral cat strategy that aligns with the national Threat Abatement Plan for predation by feral cats, with appropriate funding from the outset.
- Appoint a state feral cat coordinator to implement the state-wide plan, support community action and education and to complement and support the work of the National Feral Cat Coordinator.
Recommendation 6: Ban ferrets being imported to Tasmania or kept as pets to prevent establishment.
Recommendation 7: Prepare for an effective response to High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).
- Surveillance and data collection including reporting and investigation of all unusual and mass sickness and deaths in domestic and wild birds, and wild mammals and intensified surveillance and biosecurity measures in high-risk situations, e.g. where seabirds and mammals interact.
- Employ a cross-sectoral One Health approach for communication and coordination of preparedness and response to HPAI.
Recommendation 8: Continue to support the eradication of fire ants and commit to Tasmania’s full share of funding for the National Fire Ant Eradication Program