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This grey literature review documents koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) conservation initiatives applied across 12 local government areas in South East Queensland, Australia. To overcome threats to koalas' survival, the grey literature indicates that local governments in this region focus on wildlife management solutions, wildlife signage, habitat restoration projects and koala awareness campaigns. Despite these measures, land clearing of koala habitat to cater for urban population growth combined with recent bushfires and floods have contributed to the decline of koalas in this region. Recommendations to enhance progress include greater usage of the grey literature in peer review work and further application of social marketing to encourage residents to uptake behaviors that can mitigate threats to koalas, including slowing down when driving in koala zones, participating in citizen science, and leashing dogs when walking in native bush areas. The need for collaborative efforts aimed at conserving the koala from potential extinction is indicated. This paper provides an approach that can be applied to track progress on coordinated efforts to conserve koalas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibropapillomatosis (FP) is a tumor‐forming disease which affects all species of marine turtle, but predominantly the green turtle (Chelonia mydas). Expression of this disease is thought to be precipitated by poor environmental conditions and often linked to anthropogenically induced environmental changes. Although FP is a globally distributed disease, targeted studies on the spatial distribution of the disease in Australia are limited. Here, we present the first comprehensive report of FP prevalence in Queensland, Australia. A retrospective analysis of 25,645 capture records for 15 sites along the Queensland coast were used to determine FP prevalence and trends in foraging green turtles. Within this data set, 791 turtles (3.1%) with FP tumors were recorded. Our analysis showed that prevalence varies between sites and years, with juvenile turtles being the most frequently affected by the disease. We found that survey method has a significant influence on the apparent FP prevalence detected at each site. That is, surveys which were explicitly FP‐targeted detected higher numbers of individual turtles with FP, and therefore generated higher prevalence rates than comprehensive population surveys. We also report the first attempt at developing water quality indices (WQIs) to compare with FP prevalence data in foraging green turtles. The WQIs were built from metrics published in a range of peer‐reviewed papers, reports, and based on expert opinion. Despite utilizing an extensive data set, a relationship between FP prevalence and WQI rankings at each site could not be quantified. The analysis was confounded by a range of limitations, including data gaps, varying temporal scales and data capture methods in the FP prevalence, and water quality data sets. This study has significant implications for management as it highlights the benefits of designing and collecting centralized data that can be integrated and used across multiple projects or programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have detailed the range of skills required for conservation and voiced concerns that training is not fit for purpose. Still, we have little understanding of what skills conservation education aims to teach. This study uses survey data and content analysis of online module descriptions to examine skills and methods teaching in conservation higher education across the United Kingdom and Australia. We found most conservation‐specific modules aimed to develop disciplinary and communication skills, but fewer than half aimed to develop interpersonal or project management skills. Social science methods training was absent from the core offering of over half of the conservation degrees reviewed. To prepare students for conservation careers and the complex problems they will encounter, the conservation education sector should further focus on building essential nonacademic skills and provide training on the breadth of methods that contribute to effective conservation science. This analysis can help educators to reflect on teaching aims and forge a curriculum that will best prepare students for contemporary conservation challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black teatfish (Holothuria whitmaei) is a high value sea cucumber that has been listed under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix II. The Black teatfish fishery in Torres Strait, Australia, is fished solely by Indigenous Torres Strait Islanders. Black teatfish were closed to fishing in 2003, based on the results of stock surveys and concerns of overexploitation. A stock survey in 2009 found the Black teatfish population had recovered substantially but the fishery was again closed after trial openings exceeded catch limits. In line with a new harvest strategy adopted for the fishery in 2019, we conducted a stock survey in 2019–2020 that suggested the stock had recovered sufficiently to support a sustainable catch limit of 20 t. Empowering Indigenous Torres Strait Islanders to use Island custom alongside western management strategies, contributed to the success of a trial opening in 2021. The combination of a harvest strategy developed in consultation with traditional owners, a rigorous scientific survey and trial opening protocols informed by Island custom, supported the CITES positive Non‐Detriment Finding for the Torres Strait Bêche‐de‐mer Fishery. This is a significant example of the successful recovery and ongoing sustainable management of a depleted sea cucumber population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet global restoration targets, action is needed at a large scale, and at a high level of ambition. Coastal and marine restoration may be hindered by an array of factors, including governance: in particular, the cost and time associated with obtaining permits. We interviewed a small group of restoration practitioners in Australia to further explore this permitting issue. Our study revealed a deeper problem, with the legal permitting process driving outcomes. Some proponents are turning away from the sites with the highest restoration potential, and instead choosing sites based on the ease of obtaining permits. We also found that the permitting process is only one part of the problem, and progress is also being hampered by onerous post‐approval conditions, including ongoing liability for restorative interventions. Finally, the permitting process stifles innovation and creativity as outcomes are locked‐in at the permit stage. We conclude by highlighting the urgent need to reform legal permitting processes for restoration, as current practice may put the achievement of global restoration targets at risk. It is anticipated that these findings will be of interest to restoration practitioners navigating this space, as well as policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective biodiversity conservation requires robust and transparent prioritization of management actions. However, this is often hampered by a lack of spatially‐explicit data on habitat variables and empirical data on the effect of management actions. Although approaches exist that integrate structured expert elicitation (SEE) with species distribution models (SDMs) to encode species responses across habitat gradients, difficulties remain in predicting management outcomes under different settings, at a region‐wide scale when key habitat covariates are not spatially explicit. Therefore, we developed an approach to integrate SDMs with SEE to capture expert understanding of likely outcomes of management actions for individual frog species, and use this to spatially predict the effect of management actions. We demonstrate our approach across approximately 4000 wetlands in greater Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As a measure of management effectiveness, we used the change in predicted probability of occurrence of seven frog species at wetlands 10 years after conservation actions are implemented (or not implemented). Management effect was elicited from experts under six scenarios. Individual expert estimates were aggregated using generalized linear models that were then used to spatially predict expected management effects, and a measure of uncertainty in the prediction, at all wetlands. Predicted management effect was strongly influenced by species initial probability of occurrence, with enhancing aquatic and surrounding vegetation an effective action for most species. We discuss practical challenges and recommend solutions in the integration of SDMs and SEE for the spatial prediction of management effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildlife‐friendly produce shows promise in addressing the disconnect between consumers' choices and the loss of biodiversity from agriculture. However, the scope of programs and their contribution to conservation remain limited. An improved understanding of specific markets, combined with auspicious scenarios, could address this. In Australia's Murray‐Darling Basin, rice fields support the largest known breeding population of the Australasian bittern, a globally endangered waterbird. We surveyed 1478 Australian consumers about their values for "bittern‐friendly" rice. To help support successful bittern breeding, consumers' mean willingness‐to‐pay for a 1‐kg product, normally $3.00, was $4.12—a premium of 37%—while the inferred valuation for their nearest neighbor was $3.79, a 26% premium. In a choice experiment, rice directly sourced from bittern‐friendly rice growers attracted the highest premium, approaching 200%, but conventional rice with indirect support for bittern‐friendly growers was also highly valued. Consumers valued endorsement and certification labels from all organizations more than individual ones, and would pay additional premiums for reduced pesticide use or organic products. Feasibility of broad‐scale, consumer‐funded incentive programs is emphasized by an engaging narrative and a supportive, cohesive rice industry. Similar opportunities likely exist where consumers can be central to endangered species conservation, expanding wildlife‐friendly farming coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, privately protected area (PPA) programs are increasing in size and number. Participating in a PPA program can be fiscally challenging for landholders (e.g., enrollment costs; potential reduction in land value; opportunity costs; costs of ongoing management). Government and nongovernmental organizations often offer financial incentives to landholders, in addition to nonfinancial incentives, to encourage program enrollment and ongoing biodiversity management. In Australia, where conservation covenanting programs have been ongoing for several decades, a diversity of financial incentives is available to landholders. We surveyed 527 conservation covenantors from three states in southeast Australia to investigate the uptake, use, experience and preference for financial incentives. Less than half of covenantors received a financial incentive to enroll, but most applied for some form of incentive after enrollment, predominantly to help with management costs. Covenantors identified challenges in accessing incentives, such as being unaware of funding opportunities or experiencing confusing application processes. We found land rates rebates to be the preferred financial incentive among covenantors, in part due to the perception that covenantors should not have to pay full rates on covenanted land. Our results suggest that while covenantors do not participate in PPA programs for financial incentives, effectively and efficiently deploying financial incentives can reduce the financial burdens of PPA management, potentially increasing the effectiveness of conservation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orchids are potentially useful as ecological indicators because of their sensitivity to habitat fragmentation and anthropogenic disturbance. While many studies explore the effect of single factors on orchid diversity, few investigate how the extent, configuration, and condition of surrounding habitat affect whole orchid communities. Here, we unravel the effect of biological invasions, anthropogenic disturbance (i.e., grazing pressure, ecological condition), and habitat fragmentation on an Australian orchid community. We sampled 39 plots across nine sites in the Mount Lofty Ranges, Australia. We recorded the number of orchid species and number of individuals per species in mid‐winter, early‐spring, and late‐spring to account for the effect of season on species visibility, with 115 surveys in total. We ranked grazing intensity and ecological condition, and estimated cover of exotic species. We analyzed the response of richness and diversity through generalized linear mixed models, and differences in species composition through non‐metric multidimensional scaling. Habitat configuration in the surrounding landscape had different effects at increasing radii, explaining 29%–87% of variance. Patch‐level orchid diversity was positively correlated with habitat edges in the immediate area, and with habitat cohesion at medium scales, whereas diversity was negatively correlated with increasing mean patch habitat area across larger surrounding areas. Orchids co‐existed with exotic species but were negatively affected once exotic cover exceeded 20%. Species composition was correlated with exotic cover. Our findings reveal a complex relationship between orchid communities and their surrounding environments suggesting orchids benefit from a somewhat disturbed environment at patch and landscape scales. These idiosyncratic responses suggest orchid diversity may be unreliable as early‐warning indicators of habitat disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected areas are a fundamental mechanism for ensuring the persistence of biodiversity. The strategic policy objectives set by governments for protected area land acquisition are strong determinants of biodiversity outcomes. An examination of these objectives is necessary to determine those most influential in designing protected area networks and understand why Australia's extinction rates exceed those elsewhere despite actively establishing protected areas over the past several decades. To examine spatio‐temporal trends in policy objectives for protected areas, we evaluated the strategic priorities in Federal, State, and Territory policy documents across Australia between 1992 and 2019 using thematic analysis. We classified priorities into seven themes: adequacy, Indigenous and cultural values; representation of ecosystem and species types; threatened species and their habitat; social and recreational values; unique values and avoiding threatening processes. We found that the representation of ecosystem and species types was the most prevalent theme in policy documents, and the least common theme was social and recreational values. We posit several reasons for this trend and warn that emphasizing extent, in terms of area or representativeness, may diminish the effectiveness, efficiency, and impact for biodiversity outcomes. We found that policies were generally supportive of the strategic identification of particular species or communities that would quantifiably benefit from protection (referred to as avoided loss). Risked‐based approaches to the establishment of protected areas are supported by modern conservation literature to enhance the protected area network's effectiveness. To maximize limited resources, we recommend that governments continue encouraging urgency to avoid species and habitat loss in their strategic priorities. This urgency should be accompanied by clear and consistent funding for on‐the‐ground actions which facilitate the socio‐ecological outcomes that characterize modern protected area policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying species population trends is crucial for monitoring progress towards global conservation targets, justifying investments, planning targeted responses and raising awareness about threatened species. Many global indicators are slow in response and report on common species, not on those at greatest risk of extinction. Here we develop a Threatened Species Index as a dynamic tool for tracking annual changes in Australia's imperiled birds. Based on the Living Planet Index method and containing more than 17,000 time series for 65 bird taxa surveyed systematically, the index at its second iteration shows an average reduction of 59% between 1985 and 2016, and 44% between 2000 and 2016. Decreases seem most severe for shorebirds and terrestrial birds and least severe for seabirds. The index provides a potential means for measuring performance against the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Target 12, enabling governments, agencies and the public to observe changes in threatened species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1935, cane toads (Rhinella marina) were brought to Australia to control insect pests. The devastating ecological impacts of that introduction have attracted extensive research, but the toads' impact on their original targets has never been evaluated. Our analyses confirm that sugar production did not increase significantly after the anurans were released, possibly because toads reduced rates of predation on beetle pests by consuming some of the native predators of those beetles (ants), fatally poisoning others (varanid lizards), and increasing abundances of crop‐eating rodents (that can consume toads without ill‐effect). In short, any direct benefit of toads on agricultural production (via consumption of insect pests) likely was outweighed by negative effects that were mediated via the toads' impacts on other taxa. Like the toad's impacts on native wildlife, indirect ecological effects of the invader may have outweighed direct effects of toads on crop production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fires change ecosystem composition and influence species extinction risk, yet information on the impact of fire on biodiversity is scant. The bushfires in southeastern Australia during the summer of 2019/20 were unprecedented in their extent and intensity, and postfire management decisions have been hindered by a lack of knowledge of the impact of fires on biodiversity. We examine the short‐term persistence of frog species across southeastern Australia after these fires using records of calling frogs from the national citizen science project FrogID. We demonstrate widespread short‐term persistence of frog species. Sixty‐six frog species were detected in the firegrounds before the fire, and within 125 days postfire, 45 of these were detected. All 33 frog species with more than five records that were detected in the months of December–March prefire were detected postfire. While the short‐term postfire persistence of so many frog species is a positive result, the population‐level and longer‐term consequences of the fires remain unknown, as does the ability of frogs to persist with the changing fire regimes predicted as a consequence of global climate change. We illustrate the value of citizen science in collecting large‐scale and rapid observations in response to increasing anthropogenically‐driven ecological events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conservation profession is increasingly seeking effective ways to reduce societal impact on biodiversity, including through targeted behavior change interventions. Multiple conservation behavior change programs exist, but there is also great uncertainty regarding which behaviors are most strategic to target. Behavioral prioritization is a tool that has been used effectively to support behavior change decision‐making in other environmental disciplines and more recently for a small sub‐set of biodiversity behavior change challenges. Here, we use behavioral prioritization to identify individual behaviors that could be modified to achieve biodiversity benefits in the state of Victoria, Australia. We use an adapted nominal group technique method to identify potential biodiversity behaviors and, for each behavior, estimate the corresponding plasticity (or capacity for change) and positive impact on biodiversity outcomes. We elicited 27 behaviors that individuals could undertake to benefit or reduce their negative impact on biodiversity. This list was then used to prioritize 10 behaviors as determined by their likely effect(s) on biodiversity, plasticity, and current prevalence in Victoria. We take a first step in outlining a list of behaviors that can direct Victorian decision‐makers toward increasing positive and reducing negative impacts of society on biodiversity, guide motivated individuals to reduce their own biodiversity footprint, and more broadly, develop a behavior change research agenda for behaviors most likely to benefit biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of overabundant native species is challenging at the best of times but is even more so when it involves an iconic species that is threatened in part of its range. Here, we examine koala overabundance, a situation that arises in some locations within the species' southern range. We consider the variable conservation status of the koala throughout its range, discuss where and why overabundance occurs, and its consequences. Programs to manage koala overabundance and impacts are generally ineffective, relying on costly and slow acting fertility control and translocation, and implemented only when a crisis already has occurred. A change in management approach is needed. Decisions should be based on an evidence‐based and transparent decision‐making framework that involves predicting where overabundance is likely, where damage costs will be high, and where proactive management is likely to be effective. With more than 65% of Australia's koala population occurring in the south and declining northern populations, a more considered approach to managing southern koalas for conservation of the species is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]