Despite being internationally recognised and seeing 90 per cent of their population vanish in just half a century, the State Government has rejected calls to list Baudin’s black cockatoos as critically endangered.
The decision comes 18 months after BirdLife Australia submitted to the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC) to have the bird relisted as critically endangered which would match the International Union for Conservation of Nature listing.
A State Government spokesperson said even with regard to the IUCN’s listing, the TSSC recommended the Baudin’s black cockatoo should remain listed as endangered under updated criteria — a decision experts from BirdLife Australia said “contradicts science”.
BirdLife WA spokesperson Dr Mark Henryon said the species is in “dire straits” with habitat loss and climate change adding pressure to the birds’ longevity and all evidence strongly indicating they are in decline.
“If things stay the way they are, they are going to go extinct — we put 50 years on it, I think it’ll happen before then,” he said.
BirdLife WA advocacy team member Viv Read said something must be done now to keep Baudin’s further from the edge of extinction.
“We know well, that if you let it go to the cliff face, if you can let it go to the point of extinction, the probability of bringing it back and the cost of bringing it back is prohibitive,” he said.
Dr Henryon said the decision from the TSSC cited insufficient data across the species’ entire range as a reason for not increasing the listing, which he said was a catch-22.
“There’s no funding to carry out the kind of monitoring the TSSC wants — and that’s precisely the catch when a species isn’t listed as critically endangered and lacks a recovery plan,” he said.
“Once again, the burden falls on community volunteers to gather this critical information and protect our natural heritage.
“The people actually qualified and employed to do the work aren’t funded to do it.”
The State Government spokesperson said they are committed to the conservation and recovery of all three threatened black cockatoo species found in the South West, including the endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoo, vulnerable forest red-tailed black cockatoo and the still endangered Baudin’s black cockatoo.
“The State Government is focused on reducing the loss of habitat through legislated environmental impact assessment processes, with all activities that impact threatened species subject to a decision by the Minister for the Environment,” they said.
However, Dr Henryon said Baudin’s are primarily forest-dwelling birds living within northern jarrah forests which he said are being significantly degraded by ongoing mining operations.
Mr Read said the “bottom line” is you can’t have both.
“This is a very old ecosystem and you cannot replace it,” he said.
Dr Henryon said the State Government’s precautionary principal should stop the clearing of Baudin’s habitat outright until the true scale of their decline is understood.
He said keeping an endangered listing means weaker legal protection, smaller offsets, and less scrutiny of habitat destruction for any developments, such as mining which occurs within their habitat.
Carnaby’s Crusaders director Dean Arthurell said the species is on the “brink of extinction” with less than 4000 of the birds left in the wild according to IUCN and BirdLife Australia data.
“If that’s not critically endangered, I don’t know what is,” he said.
“These birds are on the brink of extinction, you can’t deny that when 90 per cent of the population has disappeared in the last 50 years.
“I think it’s pretty clear that the government’s obviously only interested in shielding the general public from the truth and making themselves look less worse than they already do.”
Mr Arthurell pointed to the State Government’s Black Cockatoo recovery plan initially released in 2013, which expired in 2023 and has yet to be renewed.
The State Government spokesperson said the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions is currently working with the Commonwealth Government to develop an updated recovery plan for all three species of threatened black cockatoos based on current scientific evidence.
“The new recovery plan is being drafted in collaboration with key stakeholders and will seek to build on the work undertaken over the term of the last plan,” they said.
“Public comment will be sought on a draft recovery plan, with any comments received considered and incorporated where appropriate into the final plan.”
Dr Henryon said the State Government is dragging its feet as the icon’s population continues to collapse and their habitat vanishes.
“We’ve got about 3000 mature birds left in the whole South West — what are we waiting for,” he said
“If the system won’t act now, what’s it waiting for — zero birds left?”
https://thewest.com.au/news/regional/despite-population-crashing-wa-has-rejected-calls-to-label-baudins-black-cockatoos-as-critically-endangered-c-19397160
