A Record-Breaking Number of Species Were Added to the Threatened List in 2023

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has reported that in 2023, a record-breaking 144 new animals, plants, and ecological communities* were added to the official threatened species list.

According to ACF’s ‘Extinction Wrapped‘ report, the number of species added to the list in 2023 is five times the annual average and double the previous record set in 2009. 

What are the new additions to the threatened species list?

The studies conducted by ACF consider the number of species added to EPBC Act lists of threatened flora, fauna, and ecological communities and the total habitat area legally destroyed through land clearing. 

The breakdown of new threatened species includes 90 animals, 51 plants, and three ecological communities, taking the total number of threatened species in Australia to 2212. Some of these newly threatened species include the Large Pied bat, Smooth crayfish, Blue-winged parrot, and even Queensland’s faunal emblem, the koala. 

The animal categories with the most new threatened species are reptiles and crustaceans (e.g crabs, lobsters, crayfish), both with 24 new species, closely followed by fish and birds. As for plants, eucalypts top the list with nine new species now considered endangered, followed by wattles with two.  

ACF nature campaigner Peta Bulling recognises that Australia’s nature laws are not doing enough to stop habitat destruction, stating, ‘The laws that are meant to protect nature in Australia are failing’.

Errinundra Plateau in East Gippsland | Photo by Owen Hanson

Why the sudden jump in threatened species?

These alarming stats are no surprise to scientists; many of the species added to the list were nominated as threatened many years ago, and only now is the backlog from the 2019-20 Black Summer Bushfires reflecting the devastating reality for struggling animals, plants, and ecological communities.

However, the science and conservation community’s frustration lies not with the number of species added to the list, but with the fact that federal environmental laws aren’t doing enough to prevent habitat destruction, Australia’s leading cause of extinction. 

According to the ACF, ‘In the past 12 months, 10,426 hectares of habitat destruction was approved under Australia’s nature laws – the equivalent of clearing the size of the MCG 5,000 times over’. 

Read more: Sydney Opera House ‘Bulldozed’ to Help Fight Australia’s Extinction Crisis

As Bulling recognises, this is only a fraction of the reality, as land clearing often happens without proper oversight of the national nature laws.

This graph shows additions and uplistings to the national Threatened Species and Ecological Communities lists, minus deletions and downlistings, for each year after the list was established | Source: ACF

What is to blame?

The main culprit of land clearing? Agriculture, primarily beef production, accounts for most of the unregulated clearing of habitat in Australia.

Land clearing is regulated by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), which governs Australia’s national environmental legislation. The EPBC Act aims to ‘protect and manage nationally and internationally important plants, animals, habitats and places’.

The regulations of the EPBC Act sit under the responsibility of the Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek. In response to this frightening jump in the number of threatened species, the ACF ‘urges Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to make sure the reform of the national environment law deals with the problem of habitat destruction’.

Why aren’t our nature laws protecting nature?

Since taking office in 2021, the Environment Minister has prioritised reforming Australia’s environmental laws, starting with rolling out a ‘Nature Positive Plan’ to strengthen and streamline Australia’s environmental laws. This review considers the findings of an independent review of the EPBC Act, released in 2020.  

The 2023-24 federal budget committed to delivering critical initiatives outlined in the Nature Positive Plan, including establishing a new Environmental Protection Agency, an independent national agency to ensure compliance with the new act and hopefully restore public trust in Australia’s environmental laws.

The plan also involves setting National Environmental Standards, which hope to improve environmental protections and provide clarity around regulated activities under the new act. According to the website, the National Environmental Standards are in the working group phase, with a draft standard due in 2024.

Too little, too late?

As positive as these changes to our nature laws sound, progress is glacially slow. In the meantime, flora and fauna continue to be added to the ever-growing list of threatened species.  

Despite having some of the world’s most iconic native animals, Australia is a world leader in mammal extinctions. Even the koala is under threat and was recognised as one of the species most affected by federally approved habitat destruction last year.

Photo by Fairy Duff on Flickr | Creative Commons

ACF’s ‘Extinction Wrapped 2023‘ report also noted that during 2023, four new gas projects and four new coal projects were approved under the EPBC act, as well as dozens of variations to existing fossil fuel projects. 

What’s next for our threatened species?

In 2022, Minister Pliberseck released the Threatened Species Action Plan: Towards Zero Extinction, which set out a pathway for threatened species conservation and recovery over the next ten years. Since coming into office, Plibersek has written 223 threatened species onto the endangered list, with half of these being affected by bushfires.  

If the federal government wants to deliver its promise of halting extinctions and conserving at least 30% of Australia’s land mass, much work must be done and fast. The ACF report outlines the need for urgent reform of our environmental laws to prevent more unique species, such as the Pink cockatoo, Northern blue-tongued skink and East Gippsland Spiny crayfish, from being added to the ever-growing threatened species list.

Pink cockatoos are now on the threatened species list | @alexjpike

* Types of ecological communities listed under national environmental law include woodlands, grasslands, shrublands, forests, wetlands, marine, ground springs and cave communities.

Feature photo by Fairy Duff on Flickr | Creative Commons