Bob Brown Foundation

Science-based Nature Defence: Protecting the Tarkine

Science-based Nature Defence: Protecting the Tarkine

We are facing the twin crises of climate breakdown and mass extinctions, threatening Earth’s biodiversity. It is as true in takayna / Tarkine in Tasmania – the largest intact temperate rainforest in Australia – as it is in the Amazonian rainforests. The costs of extraction have been borne by the planet, with only 4 per ...

GOAL

$50,000

RAISED

$16,000

Australia > TAS > Regional
05/01/2024 > 22/01/2025

Field of Interest

  • Civic engagement and leadership
  • Environment conservation and climate change

Target Population

  • Flora / fauna
  • General population
Bob Brown Foundation Bob Brown Foundation

Bob Brown Foundation protects the natural environment, especially remaining wild places and their unique, irreplaceable ecosystems.. From the forests to the oceans, we take peaceful direct action, conduct scientific surveys, mobilise the wider community and take effective legal action. One of our main campaigns is to permanently protect 495,000 Ha of Tasmania's takayna / Tarkine as a World Heritage-listed National Park. We broadcast the threats to wild places with films, images and writing. We are working to end native forest logging in Australia, protect the critically endangered Swift Parrot, and raise awareness about the decline of Koala and Glider habitat and the need for better forest and ocean protection, including all of Antarctica.

Project Summary

We are facing the twin crises of climate breakdown and mass extinctions, threatening Earth’s biodiversity. It is as true in takayna / Tarkine in Tasmania – the largest intact temperate rainforest in Australia – as it is in the Amazonian rainforests. The costs of extraction have been borne by the planet, with only 4 per cent of animal life on Earth remaining is in its wild, natural habitat. Our legacy must be to reverse this, and to provide a future for all life – including our children and grandchildren.

Our research at Bob Brown Foundation focuses on threatened species that are relying on forests threatened by permanent disturbance, such as logging or mining operations. One of our focus species is the Tasmanian Masked Owl which depends on old forests and has been vastly ignored by previous conservation efforts because of its elusive nature.

Our increasing monitoring efforts are recognised as leading practice, and our ability to grow our evidence-base to invoke national protections is restrained by our limited resources.

We will deploy additional cameras and audio recorders to extend the identification and range of a number of threatened species, with e-bikes allowing greater access for our staff across large distances, and the satellite monitoring giving detailed landscape-scale information about destructive actions taking place in these regions. We are also conducting an in-depth assessment of the reserves of embedded carbon in these dense forests, which without disturbance act as a highly effective buffer against increased CO2 emissions.

Project Outcomes

Intact and irreplaceable habitat retained: Protection of threatened species relies on accurate information on their habitat and breeding sites. Securing additional monitoring equipment will enable the Foundation to cover wider territory, in greater depth and for longer periods. An example of our impact can be seen in our early results using leading techniques and published in the peer-reviewed journal Corella in August 2023: " Detection of the endangered Tasmanian Masked Owl (Tyto novaehollandiae castanops) using passive acoustic monitoring" .

Policy and practice change: Evidence gathered through such rigorous monitoring is significant and is useful as evidence in court actions. It has resulted in halts to logging and mining proposals that would have irretrievably destroyed habitat of threated species, including Tasmanian Masked Owls and Swift Parrots. Using peaceful direct action, backed by science and strategic litigation, we can build the case for halting the further destruction of native forests, and secure community backing for policy change nationally, following Victoria and WA in ceasing native forest logging.

Budget Breakdown

TOTAL BUDGET: $70,000
FUNDING
Funding source Amount
Bob Brown Foundation (confirmed) $20,000
Funding gap (unconfirmed) $50,000
EXPENSES
Expense item Amount
Fauna cameras and bioacoustic recorders, memory cards etc $12,000
Two long-range electric mountain bikes $14,000
Satellite monitoring of landscape-scale bioregions in Tasmania $24,000
Employee costs for BBF science team $20,000

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Level 6, 126 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne VIC 3002

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants and Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live, learn and work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.

Australian Communities Foundation is a proudly inclusive organisation and an ally of LGBTQIA+ communities and the movement toward equality.