BIRDLIFE AUSTRALIA Member Communique, March 2021 27 February 2021

Key updates, developments and outcomes from the Board meeting held 27 February 2021.

STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENTS Key Highlights • The board:

o endorsed the next stage of a proposal to investigate the development of a discovery centre/office in Bold Park, Perth for place-based community engagement in bird conservation;

o noted progress with the digital transformation engagement project to improve the experience for BirdLife supporters;

o noted progress on the development of an ambitious new strategic plan aligned to the zero draft goals of the United Nation’s post 2020 biodiversity framework;

o agreed to establish a new Community Grants and Awards Committee to empower community participation in BirdLife’s programs and priorities;

o endorsed an implementation plan for BirdLife’s Diversity & Inclusion policy;

o discussed updates to the organisation’s Risk Register; and

o endorsed the draft annual financial statements for 2020.

• Professor Samuel’s final EPBC Review report recommended a package of reform including an independent regulator and strong national standards. The federal government continues with a piecemeal reform agenda, including devolution with significantly weaker national standards;

• BirdLife secured philanthropic funding to support recovery actions for the Glossy Black Cockatoo, with other bushfire related funding applications submitted;

• BirdLife staff and the WA branch are working together on a campaign to seek an election commitment that will halt and reverse the continued projected decline of the Perth population of the endangered Carnaby's Black- cockatoo;

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 1 March 2021 SA Pastoral Bill Staff have been working with the Chair of Gluepot Reserve and an alliance of nature conservation groups in response to a Pastoral Bill aimed at growing the pastoralism sector within the rangelands. The group has engaged Livestock SA on potential amendments such as explicitly permitting conservation as an alternative use. BirdLife’s preference is to see the Bill blocked. Given the Bill it is being tabled soon, and has political support, amendments via negotiation is supported. Longer pastoral leases could be the trade-off (with stronger compliance and enforcement to protect bird habitat in the Rangelands).

Research & Conservation Committee BirdLife acknowledges concern from members and the community regarding birds named after controversial colonial era figures. For example, Major Mitchell’s exploration party was reported to be involved in a massacre of Indigenous people.

BirdLife Australia maintains the Working List of Australian Birds for all species and sub-species of birds occurring in Australia for the purpose of conservation. The list includes the common names that BirdLife uses for each taxon. It is acknowledged that other Australian lists are also used and maintained by different groups.

This issue reflects changing community values. The Board endorsed a proposal by BirdLife’s Research & Conservation Committee to establish a diverse advisory committee to address this issue using agreed criteria.

BirdLife Awards The Board endorsed the nominations put forward by the Awards Committee for Honorary Life Membership and BirdLife Australia Distinguished Service Awards.

CONSERVATION PROGRAMS Preventing Extinctions Emergency Interventions

The Australian Government agreed to fund further King Island Scrubtit and Brown Thornbill work in 2021 as a result of BirdLife’s seed funded research in 2020. BirdLife continues to work with Conservation Action Plan (CAP) stakeholders to progress priority conservation actions, including community support for habitat protection and improved fire management of habitat.

Grey Range Thick-billed Grasswren have been found at a number of new sites as a result of our survey efforts. Potential partnerships with Universities are being investigated to undertake formal species distribution modelling and ecological research.

Northern Eastern Bristlebird surveys in Queensland this year will inform the work of the Northern Eastern Bristlebird working group as it seeks to secure funding for priority actions including further surveys and habitat management.

The Black-throated Finch Recovery Team is implementing the recommendations of BirdLife’s review of Recovery Team governance. BirdLife will continue to work with the Team to update and finalise the Black-throated Finch CAP and the new Recovery Plan.

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 12 March 2021 The new Bushfire Recovery Project Officer on Kangaroo Island is collaborating with the South Australian government to survey the most severely burnt areas in the west and has begun to establish community surveys in the east. A radiotracking study of Western Bassian Thrush and the Western Whipbird on the island is being planned.

Installation of artificial hollows (‘cockatubes’) for South- eastern Glossy Black-Cockatoos in East Gippsland has begun to supplement known breeding areas close to remaining foraging and water sources. Funding from the Williamson Foundation will allow post-installation monitoring and targeted engagement with Landcare groups that are planting Allocasuarinas and education projects to increase community knowledge of and support for conservation of ‘Glossies’ across East Gippsland.

BirdLife hosted a series of recovery planning workshops for the Eastern Ground Parrot and Eastern Bristlebird projects. Post-fire assessments and national monitoring regimes for these species is also being completed. BirdLife is liaising with the National Environmental Science Program to improve national coordination of post- fire monitoring and recovery efforts by agencies, communities and researchers.

Surveys for Western Whipbird (wheatbelt) were undertaken across spring 2020, with a report due soon. BirdLife, Hunter Local Land Services and ANU’s Difficult Bird Research Group are also partnering to establish a monitoring protocol for Rufous Scrub-bird and address knowledge gaps.

Fire severity mapping has been applied across Superb Lyrebird species distribution maps to identify high impact and unburned refuges. Volunteers trained over the summer are now assisting in surveys to assess foraging activity. Suitability of the lyrebird as an umbrella species for the conservation of other wet forest species will also be assessed.

The Western Ground Parrot project is underway and is working collaboratively with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions and the Friends of the Western Ground Parrot to monitor populations and assess feral predator threats.

National Laws and Policy

BirdLife continues to work as part of the Places You Love Alliance (PYL) to deliver stronger nature laws. The final report for Professor Graeme Samuel’s review of the EPBC Act (the Review) has been publicly released. The recommendations include a package of reform with robust national Environmental Standards.

The Australian Government is yet to formally respond to the Review, but the Environment Minister has developed an alternate set of extremely weak interim standards to accompany the devolution bill before Parliament. The new bill sets up a framework for a commissioner and standards, but it is far from the reforms needed.

The Alliance is using a policy brief to work the connections we have been nurturing for many months and years: NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean publicly backed the Samuel recommendations as have a number of key crossbenchers. BirdLife Network volunteers and supporters continue to roll out meetings with their local MPs, including Tanya Plibersek MP, Linda Burney MP, David Gillespie MP and Pat Conaghan MP.

BirdLife and the Alliance have until June to negotiate higher standards.

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 12 March 2021 Convention on Biological Diversity

BirdLife Australia continues to contribute to the BirdLife International Post 2020 Taskforce which has been working on some new position papers. BirdLife International has been working closely with international eNGO Partners in the ‘Pyramid Group’ (WWF, TNC, WCS, CI, RSPB) to finalise a joint paper which calls out the lowered ambition in the updated zero draft of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

BirdLife International is strongly advocating elements such as preventing extinctions to be reinstated; and improvements in the consideration of biodiversity in the climate agenda (ie “Nature Based Solutions”). The Taskforce are working on key messages and plans to: mobilise political leaders to carry out ambitious action on biodiversity; mobilise populations to press for ambitious action on biodiversity; build momentum towards action, using the existing commitments; and raise awareness of the linkage between biodiversity solutions and other planetary crisis (climate, SDGs, pandemic, etc).

BirdLife Australia is mobilising advocacy around reinstating Key Biodiversity Areas as a headline indicator to measure progress in protecting important areas (it had been relegated to an optional indicator). This includes engagement with the Australian Government and Australian eNGOs. BirdLife’s Pacific Partners could play a pivotal role in negotiations for the biodiversity and climate agendas but lack capacity.

Campaigns BirdLife is working with the Toondah Alliance to prepare for the anticipated April release of the Environmental Impact Statement for the Toondah Harbour project, including commitments from experts, international influencers and strategy for a public submission. The newly appointed Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon confirmed during Parliamentary estimates that the Queensland Government will not attempt to amend the Ramsar boundary. Walker Corporation has stated that a conservation education centre will be part of the final development, underpinning their strategy to meet ‘wise use’ Ramsar criteria.

World Wetland Day became an online day of action to highlight the importance of Ramsar sites. BirdLife will soon release a joint letter of concern from wetland and shorebird scientists to the media.

BirdLife continues to work with local supporters on the review of planning zone regulations in the Cessnock area, affecting the Hunter Economic Zone. Supporters were also mobilised to oppose another proposed development in Regent Honeyeater breeding habitat in NSW.

In Tasmania we are collaborating with the Bob Brown Foundation to conduct citizen science surveys of Swift Parrot habitat under threat from forestry activities. BirdLife is developing a discussion paper looking at options for permanent protection of Swift Parrot habitat on crown and private land on Bruny Island. BirdLife has engaged the NSW EPA and written to the NSW Forestry Corporation regarding planned logging activities in Swift Parrot habitat.

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 12 March 2021 An Advocacy Toolkit has been developed for the Coastal Birds team. BirdLife is also advocating against the removal of beach rangers in the Belfast Beach Reserve and collaborating with Environmental Justice Australia on a case study for a report on Critical Habitat Guarantees.

Key Biodiversity Area Program BirdLife is currently advocating for the NSW Government’s Areas of Outstanding Biodiversity Value to be fully aligned with global Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) criteria.

In response to BirdLife Australia’s concerns about the strict interpretation of Criterion C for ‘intact ecosystems’, the global KBA secretariat is organising a workshop.

In 2020, despite the pandemic, over 101 KBA Health-checks were completed by volunteers. Over the last four years around half of the KBAs received at least one Health-check; the highest in the global partnership.

BirdLife International has identified Australia as the country with the highest number of KBAs/Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas in Danger (2019). This is driven by water management, fire regimes and invasive species but also reflects our extensive monitoring and the high number of KBAs in Australia.

Nine KBA boundary changes/new declarations are being revised for re-submission to the global KBA secretariat, with a further nine proposals ready for a first submission. Work is also underway for non-avian taxa (eg orchids); demonstrating the value of KBAs ‘beyond birds’ to governments, NGOs and relevant agencies.

Other developments include pre- and post-fire season surveys of KBAs (and beyond); refinement of shared sites in Tasmania, engagement with several Indigenous groups to support monitoring and formalised monitoring arrangements with Bush Heritage.

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 12 March 2021 Coastal Birds Hooded Plover breeding and site- based threat monitoring is underway for the 2020/2021 season. The season is appearing to be more successful than last season, with areas such as the Mornington Peninsula already with more fledglings than the past two seasons.

The 2020 Hooded Plover biennial count was completed in November and December – with some regions of Tasmania participating in the count for the first time. Count data has been used to comment on the Threatened Species Strategy S Scorecard for the Hooded Plover which shows we have been able to support a stable trajectory on the mainland.

The Beach-nesting Birds conference has been postponed until 2022 because of the pandemic.

The Sharing our Shores project in South Australia now spans across the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape and Northern and Yorke Landscape. The team is well in to delivering training workshops, meeting with councils to progress recovery actions.

A documentary on Off Road Vehicles on beaches, funded by Birds SA, will include BirdLife interviews, information and video footage.

Genetic sampling of Hooded Plovers continues in Tasmania and remote parts of Victoria. BirdLife is in discussions with the Victorian Wader Study Group and NSW Parks and Wildlife Service to collect samples from other areas.

Four sites were utilised by Fairy Terns across Port Phillip and Westernport bays, including Avalon, Mud Island, Phillip Island and Rams Island. This is more activity than in the past three seasons and related to greater water availability. Unfortunately, all colonies have failed to date. Cameras are being set in the field to determine sources of colony failure.

Boaters and fishers are being engaged to report small tern sightings. A new resource has been developed to facilitate accurate identification as well as to provide guidance on best practice boating and fishing around important seabird and shorebird sites. This will now be circulated among this stakeholder group for feedback before finalising content.

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 12 March 2021 The Wildlife Conservation Plan for Migratory Shorebirds has been delayed. BirdLife will work closely with the Federal Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment to align the Migratory Shorebirds CAP evaluation and revisions.

The Migratory Shorebirds program secured a new project ‘Healthy Coorong, Healthy Basin’ which to research the ecology of shorebirds in the area and inform a landscape-scale action plan. BirdLife visited the Coorong to coordinate the summer count, meet with academics to determine focal field sites, connect researchers with counters, and host a final Site Action Planning workshop with 16 community and government stakeholders.

A mentor program for one of the largest Ramsar wetlands in south-west WA (Peel-Yalgorup Ramsar site) has drawn upon local knowledge and skills to recruit, train and support beginner shorebird surveyors and build local capacity to continue the monitoring across the entirety of the Ramsar site into the future. BirdLife also advocated against the deep dredging of the Peel-Harvey estuary for an unsustainable marina development at Point Grey.

Woodland Birds The first edition of the Woodland Birds Conservation Action Plan has been finalised and is now available on the website. Priorities for the next 12-18 months identified include strategies to: protect priority areas; engage the wider community and regulate habitat loss.

BirdLife’s Woodland Birds Team are currently undertaking a number of projects which deliver on key strategies of the Woodland Birds CAP including:

The Birds on Farms Saving the Nectar Sippers project is on track to meet its objectives in its final year for bird monitoring and community engagement. An extension has been granted for the on-ground works component, undertaken in conjunction with Holbrook Landcare, due to COVID-19 related delays. An expansion of the program (with a focus on on-ground restoration) is being supported for the next 7 to 10 years. The long-term commitment will allow us to step up our engagement and activate more landholders to protect and restore bird habitat. The learnings will inform the work in Victoria which has more than 190 properties now participating.

The South-eastern Red-tailed Black Cockatoo project continues to meet targets and objectives, including ‘Kids Helping Cockies’, Stringybark tree plantings (over 12,000 seedlings were planted in 2020), the Nest Incentive Scheme, updating the Annual Count maps and a training video for new volunteers. Bio-acoustic monitoring has been rolled out during the nesting season to sample 65 new nest boxes across the South-eastern Red-tailed Black Cockatoo range, and some further nest boxes have been installed.

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 12 March 2021 Regent Honeyeater: Noisy Miner control was undertaken in three regions in 2020 – the Widden Valley and Bundarra regions of NSW, and around Chiltern Mt-Pilot National Park (Vic). The control programs facilitated successful breeding of Regent Honeyeaters, with three nests across the treatment areas producing eight fledglings.

The outcomes of the 2020 Regent Honeyeater captive release have been reviewed to inform future releases. Despite the setbacks and lower than anticipated survival, a 2021 captive release is being planned for NSW, pending suitable conditions and sites being found.

Seven properties are well progressed to be part of the Regent Honeyeater covenanting program in the Capertee valley, Lower Hunter and the Bundarra- Barraba region. One property has signed a covenant and incentive payments are being processed.

The National Regent Honeyeater Monitoring Program saw one of the lowest recorded totals of Regents observed across the range, with just 83 birds found; probably the result of the drought and fires in previous years. Despite this, a number of nests which fledged young were found and monitored across the contemporary range of the species.

The bushfire recovery grant ‘Raising the Regent from the Ashes’ is well underway as a collaboration with ANU. Coastal monitoring of unburnt NSW sites detected three sets of birds, and two successful nests, and post-fire assessments were undertaken in the Burragorang Valley.

A Population Viability Analysis workshop was held last year and this work will be completed in the early 2021. A recovery team meeting was held in December and a planning workshop reviewing the recovery plan and captive releases is scheduled for late February.

Swift Parrot: Despite the cancellation of the biannual surveys in 2020 for Swift Parrot (and Regent Honeyeaters), sightings indicated that central and northern Victoria were the most productive regions. Slow progress on the roll out of the new methodology should be addressed in May, with new volunteer support materials.

BirdLife chaired a successful Swift Parrot Recovery Team meeting in December, and a workshop is planned for early 2021 to review the recovery teams' position on establishing a captive breeding program for the species given its dire state in the wild (consensus in the team of a wild population now down around the 750 mark).

The reopening of Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary to visitors and campers has seen multiple small groups coming through the reserve. In order to be COVID safe the Clare Miller Environment Centre still remains closed. The reserve is in the best condition for a long time. Meetings to start development of a management plan aligned to the Woodland Birds CAP are planned.

Threatened Mallee Birds CAP - The final draft of the updated CAP (V2.0) was discussed at the most recent Steering Committee meeting, with a focus on past achievements, future management interventions and priorities for the next 12 months.

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 12 March 2021 SCIENCE & RESEARCH PROGRAMS Science Program National Environmental Science Program Phase 2

The National Environmental Science Program (NESP 2) is in setup phase. BirdLife will explore options for an extension of meaningful aligned research collaborations established in NESP 1 (eg the Threatened Species index Project), either inside the hub structure or more broadly in partnerships with academic institutions.

Monitoring Program Threatened Bird Index

The third iteration of the Threatened Bird Index was released in December 2020. The index has grown from 59 taxa in 2018, to almost 70 taxa in 2020, with over 400,000 records from almost 20,000 time series of data. This is a significant achievement for the first phase of an ambitious long-term project. The objective of this phase, to demonstrate that a threatened index could be developed for Australian threatened species, has been met.

A short introductory video animation and the web visualisation tool is available online at: https://tsx.org.au/tsx.

State of Australia’s Birds

The State of Australia’s Birds project team is trialling data processing and analysis methods on the Tasmanian region. The trials are intended to set the template for data analysis.

A new ‘region’ will be also established to examine trends in urban areas.

Pooled, raw standardised reporting rates have also been calculated for 125 taxa of potential concern (arising from Action Plan for Australia’s Birds consultations) and are being used as exploratory evidence for potential changes to conservation listings.

Taxonomic updates will also be included in a planned major update to Birdata.

WWF-Australia bushfire report

The final report estimating the numbers of vertebrate taxa potentially killed or displaced by the 2019-20 fires across Australia was released late 2020. Final reporting used 100,486 20min 2ha count surveys from Birdata. An average of 15.73 birds per hectare were impacted by the fires totalling 180.3 million birds. This is a conservative estimate.

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 12 March 2021 Fire response mapping and monitoring

Work is underway with the BirdLife Conservation Preventing Extinctions team and members of the birding community on Kangaroo Island to establish a long term community based monitoring program. Sites are currently being ground-truthed and refined after initial desk- top definition. Some additional analysis of vegetation and severity of fire is to be undertaken to further direct decision making on the status of the island subspecies.

Birdata

Standardised datasets from stakeholders and eBird are being imported to improve the dataset. This includes Universities, Landcare groups, Bush Heritage etc.

Structured Monitoring Projects

The Birds in Plantations project for PF Olsen Australia has been renewed with another five year contract signed. The work demonstrates bird diversity and abundance in their properties; primarily because of remnant habitat within the plantations. Further research is needed to better understand the importance of remnant habitat.

Wetland Bird Program Draft recovery plans for Australasian Bittern and Australian Painted Snipe have been submitted for final approval. At this point BirdLife will prepare proposals to operationalise action priorities, including a proposed project to understand the importance of Australia’s north-west region for Australian Painted-Snipe.

A literature review on the ecology of the Australasian Bittern is near to completion. Information will be extracted from the document and included in a booklet with photos to inform landholders in the Glenelg Hopkins CMA region about the way they can manage wetland habitat on private land (ie the best practice management guide).

A WA Australasian Bittern project uses data collected from Autonomous Recording Units to update estimates on the distribution and abundance of birds across the southwest and assess the suitability of wetlands for breeding. A significant breeding wetland in an ex-potato farm has been identified.

Several private landholders and local blue-gum operations have been engaged in monitoring, fencing and revegetation. Information about the project has been disseminated through local newspapers, workshops and presentations.

The second phase of the Great Barrier Reef Catchment Wetland Bird Monitoring Project continues at Mungalla near Ingham and Fig Tree Lagoon near Babinda. Monitoring at Mungalla will continue until at least the middle of 2021. A project proposal is being scoped to maintain existing bores and implement more bores in the former estuary, with landholder support, to support threatened species such as the Australian Painted Snipe.

BirdLife joined the Management Advisory Group for the Restoration of the Ramsar Wetlands of Bowling Green Bay Catchment project run by the NQ Dry Tropics NRM group.

A summary of the first 18 months of data from the shorebird floating roost trial is nearly complete. To date 50 species of waterbirds including 21 species of shorebird have been observed using the floating roosts in Australia and the Republic of Korea. A further three species have been observed on commercial operations but not the trials. A project proposal is being scoped to finance the next stage of the trial.

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 12 March 2021 WA Program Key highlights include:

• Preparations are underway for the Great Cocky Count in 2021 count, with COVID-19 contingencies planned;

• Cocky Watch, a road transect survey, is providing preliminary comparative density estimates of all three species of Black-Cockatoo across the south-west (via Birdata). BirdLife is working with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions to analyse the data using distance sampling methods.

• Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo Breeding Monitoring data will be used by the regional NRMs to identify and prioritise breeding sites for on-ground conservation initiatives and will provide baseline data for outcomes of such conservation efforts.

• Further strategic revegetation is planned in 2021 to provide food for Black-Cockatoos and connect fragmented habitat on the southern Swan Coastal Plain. The work involves local councils, community groups and schools.

• Staff and the WA branch are working together on a campaign to seek an election commitment to halt and reverse the continued projected decline of the Perth population of the endangered Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo. It calls on the government to commence large-scale native revegetation of Gnangara/Pinjar/Yanchep pine plantations and to cease clearing of remaining Banksia woodland (a threatened ecological community) on the Swan Coastal Plain.

• Schools and communities across local government areas in Perth are being engaged to improve the connectivity and permeability of the urban landscape for birds through on- ground actions implemented in both their backyards and public spaces. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, casuals were employed to meet project planting targets.

Urban Birds Program The Urban Birds Program currently comprises of the Birds in Backyards, the Powerful Owl, Birds in Schools and Bird Strike projects. An Urban Birds CAP is underway to design a cohesive collaborative long-term plan to improve urban biodiversity. Key highlights include:

• as part of the rodenticide campaign BirdLife has created an Owl Pledge and has written to Coles, Woolworths and Bunnings requesting the removal of second generation rodenticides from their shelves. Bunnings advised that they will not be changing anything. The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority has only agreed to look at labelling inconsistencies.

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 12 March 2021 • more new Powerful Owl sites and breeding territories are being identified to inform public advocacy actions such as vegetation management, nest boxes and to stop clearing, building and burning. A conservation genetics project will use owl feathers to identify the placement of green corridors in urban areas. BirdLife was also involved in a Channel 10 "Totally Wild" episode.

• a number of bushfire 'icon' species have been recorded in the Birds in Backyards Birdata surveys such as Gang-gang Cockatoos.

• a Birds in Schools online platform has now been built (a moodle hub) and the project was delivered to 30 schools in Term 4. The platform could become a hub for learning across other BirdLife Australia projects.

CORPORATE SERVICES Preparations are underway for the 2020 external audit.

The annual compliance report on the Whistleblower Policy & Procedure was prepared for the Governance Committee. No reports were received during 2020.

The Board approved the Diversity and Inclusion Policy in August 2020. A draft two-year action plan has been developed to implement the policy under four strategic priorities with indicative success factors. Supporting employment policies and procedures are in place to support the Diversity and Inclusion Policy. The draft action plan will look to enhance current processes, eg recruitment. An annual review of the Risk Register was conducted to assess whether the current register still reflects BirdLife’s risk profile. The Board believed an adverse publicity crisis management plan was critical and should be developed. Occupational Health & Safety OHS Alerts have commenced with updates to staff and the Network on safety responsibilities, ie OHS policies and compliance requirements, bushfire safety and COVID-19 updates.

BirdLife continues to navigate through the various levels of COVID-19 public health restrictions in the various States and Territories - and continues to be adaptive and respond to circumstances as they arise and continue to regularly communicate with staff and the Network.

BirdLife Australia Member Communique 12 March 2021