The NSW Government has announced a 10-year extension of its long-term partnerships with Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) and the University of NSW (UNSW) Wild Deserts program to support the next decade of threatened species recovery in NSW national parks.
The partnerships will continue at three major feral predator-free areas: Mallee Cliffs National Park and Pilliga State Conservation Area, delivered with AWC, and Sturt National Park, delivered through UNSW Sydney’s Wild Deserts program.
To date, across these three partnership sites, 13 species locally extinct in NSW have been reintroduced, including the greater bilby, bridled nail-tailed wallaby, numbat, western quoll and Shark Bay bandicoot.
Some of these species had not been seen in the wild in NSW for more than 100 years but are now breeding in areas protected from feral cats and foxes.
“By working together, we’ve proven what long-term collaboration can deliver for conservation in Australia,” said AWC Chief Executive Officer, Tim Allard.
“Together with NPWS, we’re turning the tide of extinction by restoring threatened species to their former range, rebuilding resilient ecosystems and reconnecting local communities to nature.
“With this partnership now extended, we’re excited to build on this success and see an even greater impact for Australia’s wildlife over the next decade.”
The three partnership sites form part of NSW’s broader network of ten feral predator-free areas. Collectively, the network is working to reduce the extinction risk for 33 species locally extinct in NSW and help secure a further 45 threatened species.
Around half of the state’s surviving mammal species are threatened with extinction, with predation by feral cats and foxes remaining a major driver of decline.
The renewed partnerships build on the success of the last ten years and support the long-term management of threatened mammal populations, including research and monitoring that can inform future opportunities for safe releases beyond fenced areas.
“This is a realisation of the tremendous progress we have made over the last decade in restoring the desert ecosystem in Sturt National Park by reintroducing marsupial species that were wiped out by cats and foxes more than a hundred years ago. There is so much more to be done,” UNSW Scientia Professor and Leader of Wild Deserts Project, Professor Richard Kingsford.
“Our focus on science linked to adaptive management is producing new learnings which improve the effectiveness of our management and are applicable not only to the Wild Deserts site in Sturt National Park but useful across NSW and nationally.
“The great strength of our success has come from our deep partnerships, with Ecological Horizons, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and Taronga Conservation Society, as well as neighbouring landholders and volunteers.”
Minister for the Environment, Penny Sharpe recently visited Mallee Cliffs National Park to meet the team behind the program and join them in releasing burrowing bettongs back into the feral predator-free area after health checks.
“We’re bringing native species back from the brink. Bilbies, Numbats and Shark Bay Bandicoots are back where they had disappeared from and they’re thriving,” said Minister Sharpe.
“The next 10 years of these partnerships is not just about what happens inside fenced areas, it’s about improving our knowledge of what contributes to successful reintroductions, so we can drive recovery of threatened species and tackle our extinction crisis.”
