Member Communiqué, June 2018 BirdLife Australia Board Meeting 26 May 2018

Key updates, developments and outcomes from the Board Meeting, 26 May 2018.

STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENTS The Board noted the reappointment of Barry Baker and John Barkla to the Board and agreed to reappoint the members of the Audit & Risk and Australian Bird Fund Committees.

Strategy implementation BirdLife Australia is leading the development and implementation of landscape scale Conservation Action Plans (CAPs) and programs for threatened birds to address the extinction crisis in Australia. BirdLife is also working to develop indicators for conservation impact reporting.

BirdLife International The Global Partners Meeting in September will consider key strategic opportunities to increase our impact by working together. BirdLife International plays an important role in international advocacy, Key Biodiversity Areas, flyway conservation, Red List etc.

International Donations Bill Proposed reforms to the Commonwealth Electoral Act have been promoted publicly as a national security initiative, however, the Bill fundamentally redefines issues-based advocacy as political campaigning. BirdLife Australia opposes the Bill.

CONSERVATION PROGRAMS Preventing Extinctions The two streams of the Preventing Extinctions Program (National Laws & Policy and Emergency Interventions) are continuing to be developed.

The Threatened Species Recovery Hub (TSR) held a workshop on Australia’s most neglected, highly imperilled birds. The workshop brought together species experts, managers and people with an interest and skills in developing public interest in ostensibly ‘uninteresting’ birds. Strategies for raising the profile, and ultimately increasing resources for the recovery, of Australia’s forgotten, imperilled birds were discussed.

Jenny Lau visited King Island to take part in a threatened species forum. Working with the King Island community will provide a good basis for ongoing discussions about the conservation of the King Island Brown Thornbill and Scrubtit. RMIT is also providing support regarding conservation messaging for highly imperilled, neglected taxa.

Member Communiqué – June 2018 1 National Policy A forward-looking agenda has been established by convening a Panel of Experts on Environmental Law (APEEL) who officially launched their policy recommendations at the Better Laws Symposium in Canberra earlier this year. BirdLife Australia and Places You Love (PYL) alliance members simultaneously launched their own campaigns championing a new generation of environment laws and governance.

More than 500 people to date have been engaged in BirdLife’s Act for Birds campaign. A petition and community mobilising actions around writing to and meeting with local MPs has kicked off to inspire supporters that change is within reach.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is conducting its third Environmental Performance Review of Australia. BirdLife used case studies and examples from the Restoring the Balance report to highlight the flaws in Australia’s nature laws.

Migratory Shorebirds The first Migratory Shorebirds Conservation Action Plan (MS CAP) committee meeting was highly productive in exploring the best way forward for operationalising the MS CAP at a regional level. BirdLife will also hold a workshop with the newly formed South Australian Shorebird Alliance to develop a localised MS CAP.

A comprehensive draft of the Directory of Important Habitat for Threatened and Migratory Shorebirds in Australia was sent to Government. The report will form the foundation for discussions in each State and regionally about management and monitoring required for these priority sites of national or international significance criteria for migratory shorebirds.

Snake Island, Avalon Saltworks will be rehabilitated in partnership with Parks Victoria. This will fit within the CAP priority for developing management plans and delivering on-ground works for a priority shorebird site identified in the Directory of Important Habitat.

Connie Lee attended and presented on the MS Cap at the Flyways Summit in Abu Dhabi. She made strong connections with several BirdLife International staff based in the Flyway which will help toward more effective delivery of the MS CAP. One of the main messages throughout the Summit was how critical it was to invest in education to increase the number of active supporters for BirdLife groups and for improving the uptake of conservation action.

Beach-nesting Birds (BnB) Reporting of the 2016 biennial count of Hooded Plovers is scheduled by late August. A long- term population census is the foundation of recovery decision making. An online tool for recording biennial count data in birdata is planned for late September.

Considerable time is being invested in the issue of horse race training on beaches in far west Victoria and working with government departments to finalise a draft management plan. Grainne Maguire spoke at a community symposium with 140 attendees including Bob Brown.

BirdLife is co-hosting a state-wide best practice workshop with the 26 site managers for beach-nesting species in NSW.

The breeding season for Hooded Plover and other BnB species that are the focus of regional monitoring projects has come to an end. The team is analysing data for 'debrief' sessions held in key regions across Vic and SA that bring together land managers and volunteers to discuss how the season went, address targets and celebrate wins.

Member Communiqué – June 2018 2 The MyBeachBird portal is undergoing major developments (this is a user restricted portal for nest monitoring) and new resources will be released by the next breeding season.

Woodland Birds Southeast Red-tail Black-Cockatoo (SERTBC): The 2018 survey weekend appears to be one of the lowest results in recent years with somewhere between just 750 and 800 birds being found.

A meeting with senior DELWP officials discussed planned burning in key SERTBC habitat. DELWP agreed to reconsider planned burns which were not related to life and/or property. However, they are reluctant to adopt targets related to reducing canopy scorch.

A new Environmental Significance Overlay (ESO) has been approved for the entire range of RTBC within Glenelg Shire. The original ESO focussed only on saving dead trees, but the new one now covers live stringybark (a key feed tree) over 30cm DBH and any hollow- bearing eucalypt trees (live or dead).

The Board acknowledged the great work done by Bronwyn Perryman on the Red-tailed Black- Cockatoo project.

Swift Parrot: A Swift Parrot conservation and advocacy campaign strategy is being developed. A meeting was held with Sustainable Timber (STT) to argue for a moratorium on logging in breeding habitat. STT plans to use modelling to exclude mature back and blue gum trees from logging.

Regent Honeyeater: Needle-leaf Mistletoe in River She Oaks has had a significant dieback in key stretches of the Capertee River where Regent Honeyeaters have traditionally bred regularly. This work will involve preliminary investigations of the drivers of this dieback, and hopefully identify ways the habitat can be restored.

A paper outlining the results of intensive nest monitoring in the 2015 captive release, which identified novel predators for this species (Sugar and Squirrel Gliders), was published in Emu in early 2018.

Birds on Farms: This project revisits key recommendations from the highly successful project of the 1990s, with a view to analyse contemporary data in contrast to earlier work. This work will leverage on ground action and inform the Woodland Birds CAP. BirdLife has found enormous interest in the community with over 180 properties engaged to date.

Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) Program National Coordination Group (NCG) members have been approached to sign on to the partnership formally ahead of approaching national species experts. A meeting of NCG members has been planned.

Christmas Island KBA in Danger: CEO Paul Sullivan handed in the petition to the Federal Environment Minister with over 56,000 signatures. On the back of this a tourism survey was run adding substantially to the economic argument. The results were shared with the minister.

Member Communiqué – June 2018 3 RESEARCH & SCIENCE PROGRAMS Monitoring Program A population trend analysis for the Mallee Striated Grasswren has been undertaken by Monitoring Program staff to inform the development of the Threatened Mallee Birds CAP. This subspecies has experienced significant decline and will be added to the initial focal group of six threatened taxa.

Birdata

Birdata now features a multi-project interface, with new developments being implemented across a number of projects to support structured monitoring.

State of Australia’s Birds/Australian Bird Index

The National Environment Science Program (NESP) to develop a threatened bird index has completed its first phase, including a data visualisation tool which will present aggregated population trends for a large number of threatened bird taxa. In 2018 the NESP project turns its attention to other taxa (mammals and plants), while continuing to collaborate with BirdLife to deliver the ‘finished product’ which is scheduled to be launched at the Ecological Society Conference in Brisbane in November 2018.

Wetlands Program

Gippsland Lakes: The ‘Great Pelican Count’ initiative, was run for the first time in April and received overwhelming support from the local community and media. The day was attended by 150 people across 81 sites, counting 444 pelicans.

Environmental watering community monitoring project: This project is to engage community and skilled volunteers to monitor and report on the effects on bird biodiversity and abundance of environmental watering at key Victorian wetland sites.

Great Barrier Reef Catchment Wetland Bird Monitoring Project: This wetland monitoring project near Townsville has demonstrated the value of rehabilitation to birds, garnered positive local press.

Orange-Bellied Parrot Stocktake report: A stocktake report on the recovery program for the OBP has been compiled and was sent to an independent review panel for recommendations. The report is with the Threatened Species Commissioner’s office.

Science Programs 2019 Australasian Ornithological Conference

Planning is well underway for the 2019 Australasian Ornithological Conference in Darwin, with a strong local organising committee and an initial list of symposia in circulation.

Program Development - Seabirds

A new project to undertake seabird and shorebird assessments in the Exmouth Gulf for Woodside Energy was initiated with reconnaissance surveys in January 2018.

The Fishing Impacts Policy was approved by the Board.

Member Communiqué – June 2018 4 COMMUNICATIONS, ENGAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Engagement Urban Birds CAP

The team has held a number of working sessions and drafted a project proposal for this CAP. The first CAP stakeholder workshop is scheduled for early August.

Birds in Schools (BIS)

A Birds in Schools project with four BirdLife branches and local councils is being run. Online teaching modules linked to the Australian curriculum have been created. The students monitor birds on their school grounds, analyse data and produce an action plan based on their findings.

Development Impact Report

An Impact Report is currently being prepared that will inform and demonstrate to supporters what BirdLife does and has achieved during the year.

Crowd Funding – Shorebirds emergency food aid

BirdLife Australia joined with BirdLife International and other NGOs to crowd fund for delivery of emergency food aid to save the Great Knot, due to a once-in-a-decade cold snap that has devastated the clam population in eastern China.

Melbourne Event - ‘Preventing Extinctions’ Program Launch

Laureate Professor Peter Doherty AC joined John Barkla, Paul Sullivan and Jenny Lau to launch the Preventing Extinctions Program with 20 Melbourne supporters at the Royal Society of Victoria. The Program received a very positive response.

ORGANISATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS No workplace injuries or incidents were recorded. The OHS Committee is reviewing its policies regarding safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults against best practice.

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