Time for change

When the Federal Government released the State of the Environment report in July 2022, it made for grim reading. Among the key findings were more severe weather events, bushfires and droughts putting ecosystems at risk, and continuing impacts on Indigenous peoples. More than 6 million hectares of primary forest have been cleared since 1990. Since 2016, an additional 202 animal and plant species have been listed as threatened.

For Dr Sally Sherwen, Director of Wildlife Conservation and Science for Zoos Victoria, that final figure is one of the most confronting from a report strewn with disturbing facts.

“It is beyond alarming that there’s been an 8 per cent increase in the number of threatened species listed, when that figure should absolutely be going in the opposite direction,” she says. “But the other worry is that it’s based on an incomplete data set as well, which unfortunately means it’s probably just scratching the surface.”

Dr Sherwen and her team of researchers and scientists work continuously to both monitor threatened species and implement recovery plans and interventions when necessary.

“A lot of the interventions we work on are conservation breeding programs,” she says. “When species get to a certain risk level and we can breed them in our facilities to secure good genetics before releasing them when the threat’s been managed, that’s what we do.”

This approach is particularly suited to amphibians, such as the Critically Endangered Southern Corroboree Frog. Only about 50 are thought to exist in their natural habitat in the sub-alpine regions of Kosciuszko National Park, but a conservation breeding program is securing strong genetics, while environmental refuges free from the frog’s biggest threats, including the devastating chytrid fungus, are created within the park.

“For other species, that might not be the best approach,” continues Dr Sherwen. “In those cases, our conservation strategy might be doing some in situ or field interventions to help support them.”

A new focus is also being applied by the Zoos Victoria team: listening to Indigenous voices and learning from 60,000 years of knowledge.

“We’re trying to unpack and unlearn the Western conservation approach, learn new ways that are more inclusive, and embrace a broader range of knowledge systems,” says Dr Sherwen. “It’s not about specific threatened species projects or conservation projects, but more about changing the way we think about issues and act with support from First Nations leaders and communities.

“What came out of the report was the importance of hearing and empowering Indigenous voices. It hasn’t happened to a great degree yet. There are a couple of good examples, but it really needs a concerted effort from government and conservation organisations to get behind that movement.”