Leaked Queensland report shows state has no overall strategy to save native species

Exclusive: Conservation staff say 955 species face extinction across the state

Lisa Cox

Tue 11 Sep 2018 01.00 BSTLast modified on Tue 11 Sep 2018 01.46 BST

The entire state of Queensland has no overarching conservation strategy to save its native species, according to a leaked internal review that criticises a lack of funding, planning and management of threatened wildlife.

The damning report obtained by Guardian Australia is an evaluation by staff in the conservation and sustainability services division of the Queensland Department of Environment and Science, the lead agency responsible for protecting native wildlife in the state.

It highlights alarm that the state does not have a comprehensive policy to guide threatened species work and that practices known to significantly improve the survival of species, such as protecting critical habitat, have been neglected, despite Queensland having twice as many plants and animals as any other state or territory.

“There is currently no overarching strategy to prioritise, guide and/or coordinate the management and conservation of threatened species in Queensland,” the review states.

Continued  

Proactive conservation management strategy urged for North Atlantic right whale

Date:  June 11, 2018

Source:  University of California - Santa Barbara

These are not good times for the North Atlantic right whale. Ship strikes and gear entanglement play major roles in the mortality of these highly endangered mammals, which now number fewer than 500. Making matters worse, climate-mediated shifts are pushing their prey out of the whales' usual feeding grounds, rendering traditional habitat-focused protection policies less than optimal.

This reality was starkly apparent in the summer of 2017, when 17 right whales turned up dead in U.S.-Canadian waters -- a mass mortality event attributed in large part to gear entanglement and ship strikes. The event also revealed that the whales had gone beyond their typical distributional boundaries. Scientists estimate that unless protective policies are expanded to cover their shifting distribution, right whales may face extinction in less than 30 years.

That's according to a new study by researchers including UC Santa Barbara Marine Science Institute ecologist Erin Meyer-Gutbrod. With atmospheric scientist Charles H. Greene, of Cornell University, and postdoctoral research associate Kimberley T. A. Davies, of Dalhousie University, Meyer-Gutbrod authored the paper "Marine Species Range Shifts Necessitate Advanced Policy Planning," which appears in the journal Oceanography.

Read on 

'Climate-Smart Strategies' Proposed for Spectacular US-Canadian Landscape

Mar. 7, 2013 — A new report from the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS Canada) creates a conservation strategy that will promote wildlife resiliency in the Southern Canadian Rockies to the future impacts of climate change and road use. The report's "safe passages and safe havens" were informed in part by an assessment of six iconic species -- bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, grizzly bears, wolverines, mountain goats and bighorn sheep -- five of which were ranked as highly vulnerable to projected changes.

Nestled between Glacier National Park in Montana and Banff National Park in Canada, the Southern Canadian Rockies (SCR) has been overshadowed by these towering icons of mountain splendour. Yet this southern section contains spectacular landscapes, supports one of the most diverse communities of carnivores and hoofed mammals in North America, and is a stronghold for the six vulnerable species that have been vanquished in much of their former range further south.

Wolverines are one of five iconic species

ranked as "highly vulnerable" in the Southern 

Canadian Rockies in a new report from WCS-Canada. 

(Credit: Mark Packila, Copyright WCS)

In the report entitled Safe Havens, Safe Passages for Vulnerable Fish and Wildlife: Critical Landscapes in the Southern Canadian Rockies British Columbia and Montana, WCS Conservation Scientist John Weaver notes that wildlife will need 'room to roam' to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Complicating those climate-related transitions are major highways and an expansive network of forest roads that have fragmented the SRC landscape.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130307190641.htm