Climate readiness of recovery plans for threatened Australian species

Abstract

The rapidly changing climate is posing growing threats for all species, but particularly for those already considered threatened. We reviewed 100 recovery plans for Australian terrestrial threatened species (50 fauna and 50 flora plans) written from 1997 to 2017. We recorded the number of plans that acknowledged climate change as a threat and of these how many proposed specific actions to ameliorate the threat. We classified these actions along a continuum from passive or incremental to active or interventionist. Overall, just under 60% of the sampled recovery plans listed climate change as a current or potential threat to the threatened taxa, and the likelihood of this acknowledgment increased over time. A far smaller proportion of the plans, however, identified specific actions associated with ameliorating climate risk (22%) and even fewer (9%) recommended any interventionist action in response to a climate‐change‐associated threat. Our results point to a disconnect between the knowledge generated on climate‐change‐related risk and potential adaptation strategies and the extent to which this knowledge has been incorporated into an important instrument of conservation action.

Treatment of climate change in extinction risk assessments and recovery plans for threatened species

“…Considerable shortfalls exist in assessing climate change risks for currently listed species, in particular for species assessed longer ago. This trend over time is corroborated by research on listed threatened species in other jurisdictions; in Australia, less than 60% of recovery plans acknowledged climate change as a threat for species listed as threatened under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, but the recognition of climate change as a threat increased over time (Hoeppner & Hughes, 2019), while in the United States, only 64% of species listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) had climate change considered as a threat, though the number of ESA documents mentioning climate change also increased over time (Delach et al, 2019;Leu et al, 2019). The increased prevalence of climate change as a threat in status reports is likely influenced by mounting evidence of the impact of climate change on wildlife species and their habitats (Pecl et al, 2017;Scheffers et al, 2016).…”

“…These plans provide general strategic direction for achieving conservation objectives alongside more specific actions aimed at abating threats impacting species, and the identification of habitat critical for the survival and recovery of species where applicable. Recovery actions may range from more direct interventions, such as actions that target habitats (e.g., restoration) or manage populations (e.g., assisted migration), to more indirect actions such as knowledge dissemination (e.g., outreach and stewardship) and gathering information to refine scientific understanding (e.g., research or monitoring) (Hoeppner & Hughes, 2019). While actions focusing on research and monitoring may reduce knowledge gaps related to a threat's mechanism of action, it is key that such knowledge acquisition be placed in context of other possible strategic actions that could more directly lead to threat abatement and improved population viability (Garnett et al, 2019).…”

The future of ocean governance

“…Academia, industry, society (Kelly et al 2019), politics, and media need to collaborate in collecting and disseminating information and increasing awareness about improving ocean governance. As climate change is already impacting the marine ecosystems, it is important to increase preparedness to respond and recover, either through precautionary recovery plans (Hoeppner and Hughes 2019) or small scale rehabilitation work (Alderman and Hobday 2017). In such contexts, it is also key to consider, assess and monitor the impacts of climate change and different human uses (Halpern et al 2015;Grech et al 2016;Mach et al 2017) (Actions 1, 13, 35).…”

Seeking shelter from the storm: Conservation and management of imperiled species in a changing climate

“…Of 381 A need to improve preparation for climate change in recovery planning is not unique to the United States; mention of specific actions to address climate change is relatively uncommon in recovery plans in Australia as well (Hoeppner & Hughes, 2018). In part because of the difficulty in keeping recovery plans up-to-date, the U.S.…”

“…Many others have static, outdated recovery plans (i.e., 8-36 years old)-the status of many recovery plans, in general (Malcom & Li, 2018)-that do not consider recent projections of hurricane threats (Appendix S1B, Table S3). (Hoeppner & Hughes, 2018). In part because of the difficulty in keeping recovery plans up-to-date, the U.S.…”