The Tasmanian Land Conservancy has told a Senate committee examining faunal extinction in Australia that vegetation loss is the single most significant driver threatening endangered species.
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Tasmanian Land Conservancy chief executive James Hattam said there needed to be changes to how critical habitats were registered and endangered species needed to have a recovery plan implemented within six months of its listing.
Additionally, recovery plans must have clear performance indicators and the federal Environment Department needed to report against these indicators each year, he said.
Mr Hattam said funding of threatened species recovery projects had declined over the past decade.
“Funding for threatened species recovery is not commensurate with the magnitude of the problem and requires a significant and sustained budgetary increase,” he said.
Denison independent MHR Andrew Wilkie said the federal government needed to strengthen environmental laws.
“Ministerial discretion must be removed and replaced with independent, steadfast and transparent decision-making processes that are consultative, accessible and accountable to Australian communities,” he told the committee.
“The current silo approach where local, state and federal governments work independently of one another must end.”
The federal Environment Department has also made a submission to the inquiry.
It said, based on the 2016 State of the Environment report, the status of biodiversity in Australia was “generally considered poor and worsening”.
The report said it was difficult to assess the status and trends for many species as they were not regularly monitored – or not at all.
It said invasive species were the biggest threat to endangered species, noting 80 per cent of species were at risk from the pests.
Climate change, land-use change, habitat fragmentation and degradation were also acknowledged as threats.
The federal government created the position of Threatened Species Commissioner in 2014 who oversees the Threatened Species Strategy which has a list of actions and set targets.
There are 138 mammals, 155 birds, 63 reptiles and 58 species of fish listed as threatened in Australia.