Bushfire recovery where it matters most Impacts and actions in Key Biodiversity Areas affected by the 2019/20 Bushfire Crisis September 2020 Stephanie Todd and Golo Maurer standing together to stop extinctions Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 3 KBA Bushfire Recovery Actions 5 Methodology 8 Effect of 2019/20 Bushfire Crisis on KBAs their Trigger Species and Priority Bird Species 10 Queensland 11 1. Palmgrove KBA 11 2. Scenic Rim KBA 12 New South Wales 14 3. Nightcap Range KBA 14 4. Gibraltar Range KBA 15 5. New England KBA 17 6. Werrikimbe KBA 19 7. Greater Blue Mountains KBA 20 8. Capertee Valley KBA 22 9. Fitzroy Falls and associated hydrobasin KBA 24 10. Jerrawangala KBA 25 11. Ulladulla to Merimbula KBA 26 Victoria and NSW 27 12. Australian Alps KBA 27 13. Nadgee to Mallacoota Inlet KBA 29 South Australia 31 14. Kangaroo Island KBA 31 Western Australia 33 15. Gillingarra KBA 33 16. Araluen-Wungong KBA 34 17. North Dandalup KBA 35 18. Stirling Range KBA 36 References 37 Acknowledgements 38 Appendix 39 Front cover image: Swamp Edge, Blue Mountains KBA, image by Paul Vale standing together to stop extinctions 1 Executive Summary This report examines the 18 Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) which had 15% or more of their habitat burnt by the unprecedented Bushfire Crisis that occured in 2019/20. It provides a sobering account of the state of the areas that matter most for plants, animals - and especially birds - in Australia. The report’s main aim is to guide meaningful actions to facilitate the recovery of these KBAs. We present the likely extent and severity of the burnt areas across each of the KBAs in their entirety, as well as the impacts on regular sites for standardised bird monitoring (Birdata Shared Sites). We specifically highlight impacts on the bird Trigger species for KBAs and other bird species of national concern within KBAs, as estimated by remote sensing/GIS. The report’s fire mapping is based on National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent Dataset v20200324 (NIAFED) and NSW Government Google Earth Engine Burnt Area Map (GEEBAM) v3.1, as available in April 2020. The assessment of the effect on birds is based on bird surveys collected by BirdLife Australia volunteers, KBA Guardians and other sources; and BirdLife Australia’s spatial analysis of population scale impacts on bird species and subspecies (G. Ehmke pers. comm.). For all its doom and gloom, the report highlights the need for a differentiated look at the on-ground situation, targeted surveys that quickly inform conservation actions and a continuation of the spirit of collaboration and support across the community highlighted so dramatically during the fire crisis. It is thanks to the work of many volunteers and KBA Guardians that we can state the most important finding of this report: ‘All that is burnt is not lost to the birds’. Dedication This report is dedicated to the brave women and men who risked - and some- times gave - their lives fighting the 2019/20 fires to protect their communities and the environment they cherish. Citation Todd, S. and Maurer, G. (2020). Bushfire recovery where it matters most. Impacts and actions in Key Biodiversity Areas affected by the 2019/20 Bushfire Crisis. BirdLife Australia, Melbourne. ISBN: 978-1-875122-01-1 Cumberland trail, Australian Alps KBA, image by Les Main standing together to stop extinctions 2 Introduction The 2019/20 bushfire season was devastating for Australia’s wildlife and unprecedented in its extent and severity. An estimated 31.5 million hectares were burnt between 1 July 2019 to the 21 April 2020, disproportionately affecting National Parks and Reserves destroying or drastically altering much of species’ habitats specifically protected from urban, agricultural development and forestry. The fires likely killed more than three billion native vertebrates (Van Eeden and Dickman 2020) and the populations of almost 800 animal and plant species. Many of them were considered secure before the fires, but have been affected so severely that they have been declared Priority Species for Commonwealth recovery efforts (Commonwealth of Australia 2020a). This report focuses on Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), the areas that are critical to maintaining biodiversity in Australia, according to a rigorous, internationally recognised, scientific standardwww.keybiodiversityareas.org/ publications (IUCN 2016). With Australia being one of the world’s megadiverse countries (Convention on Biological Diversity 2020) our KBA network contributes disproportionally to the protection of global biodiversity. Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are: • Places of global signficance for the conservation of birds and other species • Recognised as a focus for practical conservation action • Linked to internationally binding agreements KBAs are identified using the strict, scientific Global Standard and must meet one of five criteria: • Contain 0.5% of the population of a (critically) endangered species* • Contain 10% of the population of a species* with a very small range • Represent intact wilderness • Provide important nurseries, migration bottlenecks etc. for one or more species* • Be an irreplaceable part of a site network * known as KBA Trigger Species KBAs did not escape the fire catastrophe unscathed; over four million hectares in 108 KBAs were affected by fires nationally in the summer of 2019/20, with over two million hectares affected across 69 KBAs in the southern and eastern states where bushfires were unprecedented in both severity and extent. Several of these KBAs represent the last known sites for some Critically Endangered Trigger Species e.g. crayfish and plants. Following on from a prolonged period of drought the fires were bad news for birds too. KBAs are home to all 17 of the bird taxa (ten species and seven subspecies) identified by the Australian Government’s Wildlife and threatened species bushfire recovery Expert Panel (the Expert Panel) as a high priority for urgent ‘urgent management intervention’. However, while many areas of habitat within KBAs were burnt, KBAs also retained important unburnt refuges for these species. Six of the most impacted species and subspecies have over 50% of their standing together to stop extinctions 3 remaining unburnt Area of Occupancy (AOO) in KBAs, and 14 have over 20%. In particular, KBAs represent a disproportionately large area (85%) of unburnt habitat for the Rufous Scrub-bird. Unburnt refuges are important for survival of individuals during and immediately following fire, but they also play a larger role in recolonisation as habitat recovers and are, therefore, of critical importance for population recovery (Robinson et al. 2013). This report marks the very beginning of understanding the consequences of the fires for KBAs. It is clear, that on-ground monitoring is essential to gain a better understanding of the level and nature of the impacts of bushfire on KBAs and the birds and biodiversity they support. This information is vital to achieve effective and efficient actions for recovery and preparedness. Thanks to the dedication of many volunteers and the BirdLife Australia KBA Guardian program, monitoring and recovery work can start from a solid base. Most of the badly burnt KBAs have a KBA Guardian or Guardian group in place, with strong relationships with local landholders and agencies and long-standing, regular, standardised bird survey sites. The many years of bird monitoring data— available in birdata.birdlife.org.au—are proving invaluable for the assessment of the impacts of fire as they enable a comparison of bird populations pre– and post-fire. For instance, some of the most reliable survey sites for the Rufous Scrub-bird escaped the fires and have retained their birds. Such findings highlight that the burnt KBAs and other fire affected areas have by no means lost their value to Australia’s biodiversity. On the contrary, their importance to our wildlife has only grown. In response to the bushfire crisis, every effort must be made to reduce any additional pressures on these sites and the species they support. Calls to revoke environmental protections to allow for logging and other detrimental activities are thus not only cynical but ill informed. In fact, the KBA Guardians contributing to this work through their local knowledge and tireless volunteering have stated this very clearly: All that is burnt is not lost to the birds Re-sprouting of a burnt Persoonia, Blue Mountains KBA, image by Paul Vale standing together to stop extinctions 4 KBA Bushfire Recovery Actions The speed and success of the bushfire recovery depends on focussing scarce resources towards the most appropriate actions in the right places. We have identified the following priority actions for KBA Guardians and other volunteers to implement and support this process: • Standardised surveys at existing Birdata Shared Sites as KBAs become safe to access. The Birdata app and website now highlight fire affected sites in red. • Standardised Birdata surveys at new sites as KBAs become safe to access; where appropriate, these should be set up as Shared Sites for long-term monitoring. • Incidental reports to Birdata of Priority Species (see Appendix Table2). • Collecting fire impact information using the new Birdata function. • Several fire affected KBAs do not currently have Guardians. For these KBAs, Guardians are needed to lead the postfire monitoring and recovery. • Conducting the Easter Health-checks for these KBAs will require liaison with landholders and agency staff to obtain an accurate picture of fire impacts and unusual bird sightings. • Liaison with ‘Friends’ groups and experts on Trigger Species, Priority Birds and other taxa are necessary to learn what additional important information should be gathered during visits, e.g. the state of creeks used by rare crayfish. • Assess the addition of KBA Trigger Species resulting from changes of IUCN threat status in response to fire. • Assess the need to change KBA boundaries or propose new KBAs to accommodate new KBA Trigger Species.