Threatened Species Protection

VOICES FOR THE EARTH

Significant excitement was generated earlier this month when a sharp-eyed member of the public spotted a mostly white Donkey Orchid. His inquiries led to experts believing this is a new species.

All orchids and other collectable or merchantable native plants in NSW, like ferns, Grass Trees etc are protected under the National Parks and Heritage Legislation Amendment Act, so these handful of plants are protected.

However, they were growing in a relatively public location, meaning there is a chance of their being accidentally trampled, or worse, being dug up by some unscrupulous collector. As a result, the location, as with most rare plants, especially collectable species are usually kept secret.

I must add that the majority of orchid ‘enthusiasts’ do the right thing which, unless the plant is listed as threatened under the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act, is only a matter of paying a modest fee for a permit.

There are 568 native plants listed as threatened under the Act and protected accordingly, which leads us to the hypothetical possibility that, because these new orchids aren’t listed as threatened, that handful of plants could be legally dug up under a standard collectors’ permit.

The problem is, it’s not just newly discovered species that are missing out on protection, there are literally hundreds of rare species facing extinction today, simply because nobody has done the research and work required to nominate them for protection.

Before declaring a species as threatened, the NSW Scientific Committee needs to see credible evidence that the nominated species is under threat of extinction. They need to know the extent of populations and the threats they face, which can be costly and time consuming.

Anyone can make a nomination, there is no one person, organisation, or government department charged with doing this research. The problem for new species is they first need describing and details published in a reputable journal before a nomination can be considered, and all that takes time and money.

A dedicated rare species assessment team, charged with doing that work, would be great.