Five ways we’re improving South Australia’s biodiversity

The theme for World Wildlife Day this year is ​‘Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Finance: Invest­ing in Peo­ple and Plan­et’, bring­ing a focus on how inno­v­a­tive finance can con­tribute to halt­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty loss, increas­ing wildlife con­ser­va­tion, and cre­at­ing a sus­tain­able future for us all.

Sad­ly, South Australia’s bio­di­ver­si­ty is declin­ing, with many ani­mals, plants and ecosys­tems under threat. Much of this is due to our own efforts since Euro­pean coloni­sa­tion, such as intro­duc­ing fer­al preda­tors, habi­tat loss through land devel­op­ment and the effects of cli­mate change.

But it’s not all bad news. Thanks to phil­an­thropic organ­i­sa­tions and gov­ern­ment sup­port, many inno­v­a­tive projects are being financed and imple­ment­ed through the hard work of pas­sion­ate vol­un­teers, all help­ing to undo dam­age to the envi­ron­ment and give bio­di­ver­si­ty a chance.

Part­ner­ing with inno­v­a­tive organ­i­sa­tions plays a big part in the impor­tant work we do at the Depart­ment for Envi­ron­ment and Water to pro­tect and con­serve our nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment, but also to invest in restor­ing what we have lost to boost our state’s biodiversity.

Let’s look at five impor­tant projects hap­pen­ing right now to pro­tect the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment and improve our biodiversity. 

1. Suc­cess­ful re-intro­duc­tions of threat­ened species 

We have been re-intro­duc­ing the west­ern quoll (Idnya) and brush­tail pos­sum (Virl­da) to the Flinders Ranges, the red-tailed phasco­gale (Ken­n­goor) to the Gawler Ranges Nation­al Park, on the north­ern Eyre Penin­su­la, as well as sup­port­ing the recov­ery of yel­low-foot­ed rock wal­la­by (Andu) pop­u­la­tions, through a part­ner­ship with the Foun­da­tion for Australia’s Most Endan­gered Species (FAME), as part of the Bounce­back Pro­gram. This part­ner­ship will also deliv­er future projects for the relo­ca­tion of bil­bies and bass­ian thrush­es, and the pro­tec­tion of threat­ened plants in Flinders, Gawler and Gam­mon Ranges. The suc­cess of these re-intro­duc­tions is depen­dent on oth­er achieve­ments in regen­er­at­ing native veg­e­ta­tion and reduc­ing the num­bers of intro­duced pest species such as goats, fox­es, fer­al cats and rabbits. 

Clock­wise from top left: west­ern quoll (Idnya), brush­tail pos­sum (Virl­da), yel­low-foot­ed rock wal­la­by (Andu), and the red-tailed phasco­gale (Ken­n­goor).

2. Suc­cess­ful re-intro­duc­tions of Yarra Pygmy Perch

For the past 15 years, we have been work­ing with The Nature Glenelg Trust, the Mur­ray­lands and River­land Land­scape Board and oth­er part­ners to restore the Yarra Pygmy Perch to the Low­er Lakes region. Fol­low­ing the Mil­le­ni­um drought in 2008, the Yarra Pygmy Perch became extinct in this region. How­ev­er, thanks to a suc­cess­ful breed­ing pro­gram and the restora­tion of water lev­els and aquat­ic veg­e­ta­tion, approx­i­mate­ly 16,000 vet-checked Yarra Pygmy Perch have been giv­en new life in the Low­er Lakes via staged releas­es since Novem­ber 2023.

3. Nuyts Archipelago 

We have a bio­di­ver­si­ty hotspot south-west from the coast of Ceduna. Nuyts Arch­i­pel­ago is the largest marine park in South Aus­tralian state waters, made up of about 30 gran­ite islands and reefs, and home to a myr­i­ad of marine life, includ­ing 8 breed­ing grounds for Aus­tralian sea lions and numer­ous seabird species such as mut­ton­birds, white-faced storm-petrels, pied oys­ter­catch­ers, ospreys, lit­tle pen­guins, hood­ed plovers and the white-bel­lied sea eagle. The marine park is also home to the Nuyts Arch­i­pel­ago Wilder­ness Pro­tec­tion Area, which is a haven for rare and endan­gered wildlife. Since 2012, activ­i­ties in the marine park have been gov­erned by a man­age­ment plan.

4. More than 20% of land area is protected

More than one fifth of SA’s land area is now pro­tect­ed as nation­al parks, con­ser­va­tion parks, and reserves – mak­ing the 30 by 30 tar­get achiev­able, and a reflec­tion of how seri­ous­ly we take con­ser­va­tion here. In South Aus­tralia, the Depart­ment for Envi­ron­ment and Water cur­rent­ly man­ages over 340 nation­al parks, region­al reserves, con­ser­va­tion reserves, con­ser­va­tion parks, game reserves, recre­ation parks, and wilder­ness pro­tec­tion areas. The next pro­posed nation­al park areas include World’s End Gorge (near Bur­ra), and the Aldin­ga Con­ser­va­tion Park, south of Adelaide.

5. Legal pro­tec­tions for biodiversity

South Australia’s first Bio­di­ver­si­ty Act is cur­rent­ly being devel­oped, to strength­en pro­tec­tions for the envi­ron­ment and bio­di­ver­si­ty. The new Bio­di­ver­si­ty Bill has under­gone exten­sive com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tion and will fol­low a par­lia­men­tary process. If passed into law, it is antic­i­pat­ed that the Act will sup­port vol­un­tary invest­ment in nature through set­ting clear sig­nals about South Aus­tralian bio­di­ver­si­ty priorities.

Read more about the part­ner­ships that are help­ing to pro­tect South Aus­trali­a’s envi­ron­ment and boost biodiversity:

• SA Gov­ern­ment teams up with Sea Shep­hard to con­serve Great Aus­tralian Bight
• How a remote South Aus­tralian island will become a haven for endan­gered species,
• Rewil­d­ing and ani­mal rein­tro­duc­tions hap­pen­ing on Yorke Penin­su­la (Mar­na Bang­gara).