On not protecting the parrot: the impact of conservation and planning legislation on an endangered species in Tasmania

In recognition of the serious threats facing its native genotypes, species and communities, Australia is party to a range of international biodiversity conventions and protocols. Strategies, legislation, and programs for threatened species conservation were developed throughout Australia in the 1980s and 1990s, partly in response to the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The decline of some species has been arrested or reversed as a direct result of this conservation effort, but biodiversity in Australia is still in decline. As of 2011, 1342 plant and 444 animal species were listed as nationally threatened. These numbers, which include species in a range of categories from vulnerable to critically endangered, have grown steadily over the past decade as overall knowledge of biodiversity has improved, with 13 percent of known terrestrial vertebrate species listed. While Australia has sought to address this decline through its latest biodiversity conservation strategy there is widespread consensus amongst conservation scientists that this strategy ‘does not acknowledge implementation failures . . . or seek to remedy them in an effective way.’