Invasive Species Council

Protecting Australian species from extinction

The Invasive Species Council (ISC) campaigns for better laws and protections for our native plants and animals from weeds, pests and feral invaders. ISC was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to keep Australian biodiversity safe from weeds, feral animals and other invaders.

Issue

Australia is currently facing an extinction crisis with more than 1,770 species now threatened or endangered, and invasive species are the number one cause. Cats and foxes have driven 22 native mammals to extinction across central Australia and a new wave of decline, largely from cats, is taking place across northern Australia. Species will continue to decline and become extinct without a strong national system for abating the threats of invasive species as well as those posed by habitat destruction. Australia’s current system for identifying key threatening processes and coordinating national threat abatement efforts fails to recognise and address many major threats (under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999). Moreover, less than half of the threats that are recognised have resulted in adequate abatement progress.

Response

The Threats to Nature project works with environmental NGOs, policy experts and scientists to develop a package of institutional, legal and policy reforms that would engender a more concerted focus on abating major threats. With the EPBC Act under independent review across 2019-20, the ISC has advocated for a reformed EPBC Act that facilitates policy changes to strengthen the system that prepares abatement plans, rather than trying to save threatened species one by one.