Helen Gulson introduced guest speaker Sophia Lacey. Sophia has a Masters in Environmental Management and joined Australian Wildlife Conservancy in 2020 as a Development Executive. AWC (https://www.australianwildlife.org/) is the largest private land manager for conservation in Australia, protecting endangered wildlife across more than 6.5 million hectares in regions across Australia, in particular its northernmost parts.
Sophia started her talk by saying Australia is one of the most biodiverse countries on earth. Unfortunately our record for protecting wildlife is abysmal with 34 mammal extinctions since 1788. In one 30 day period in 1939, over 600,000 koalas were slaughtered! In the year 2000, there were more than 225,000 Woylie Bettong in Australia and by 2012 the numbers had dropped to below 18,000.
Sophia said that conversation was too big for government alone and Australian Wildlife Conservancy has partnered with government to establish and maintain sanctuaries in order to protect wildlife and effectively reduce further extinction.
Land Management
AWC manages the largest land conservation estates in the world. Some of those sites include Bullo River, Yampi Sound Training Area which they manage in partnership with the ADF, and Dambimangari country in WA. They have a land management and feral animal contract and 80% of their staff work in the field. Their fire management procedures leave plenty of green leaf canopy. Eco fires reduce CO² emissions.
The feral animals in the regions include camels, pigs, foxes and goats but by far the worst are the feral cats. In Australia a staggering one million native animals are killed EACH NIGHT!
In one region, AWC are building conservation fences with the help of Warlpiri Rangers. The Rangers do an amazing job tracking cats, and can even tell if a cat is male, female or pregnant by just studying their tracks.
Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary is the site of the world’s largest feral cat eradication project involving a massive feral cat-free area that will ultimately protect up to 100,000 hectares from feral predators, and where ultimately at least 10 nationally threatened mammal specials will be reintroduced.
Science & Conservation
Sophia also spoke about the importance of science such as the development of genetic technology aimed at breeding either all male or all female cats so they can breed themselves out.
The NSW government has also partnered with NFPs to conserve national parks. The Pilliga and Mallee now have fenced areas from which feral animals have been removed and where native species have been reintroduced and are protected. AWC maintains and monitors these fenced areas which are checked every 2-3 days.
Helen thanked Sophia for her most interesting talk, and the most ambitious conservation plan which in time will hopefully change the face of Australia’s environmental landscape.
Helen Gulson
