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Commonwealth legislation
This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
This Threat Abatement Plan (under the EPBC Act) creates a national framework to coordinate research, monitoring and targeted control to reduce rabbit competition and land degradation. It sets five objectives (island eradication, priority regional control, research, better control tools, stakeholder outreach) with priorities and timeframes. It affects Commonwealth and state agencies, regional bodies, landholders and conservation groups; DEWHA coordinates implementation while costs rest mainly with stakeholders, with limited Australian Government support (1.2.3; 1.2.5; 3.1–3.3).
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Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
Threat Abatement Plan for Competition and Land Degradation by Feral Rabbits
made under section 33 of the Endangered Species Protection Act 1992 and continued in force under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
Compilation No. 1
Compilation date: 1 October 2008
Includes amendments up to: F2009L00068
About this compilation
This compilation
This is a compilation of the Threat Abatement Plan for Competition and Land Degradation by Feral Rabbits that shows the text of the law as amended and in force on 01/10/2008 (the compilation date).
The notes at the end of this compilation (the endnotes) include information about amending laws and the amendment history of provisions of the compiled law.
Uncommenced amendments
The effect of uncommenced amendments is not shown in the text of the compiled law. Any uncommenced amendments affecting the law are accessible on the Legislation Register (www.legislation.gov.au). The details of amendments made up to, but not commenced at, the compilation date are underlined in the endnotes. For more information on any uncommenced amendments, see the series page on the Legislation Register for the compiled law.
Application, saving and transitional provisions for provisions and amendments
If the operation of a provision or amendment of the compiled law is affected by an application, saving or transitional provision that is not included in this compilation, details are included in the endnotes.
Modifications
If the compiled law is modified by another law, the compiled law operates as modified but the modification does not amend the text of the law. Accordingly, this compilation does not show the text of the compiled law as modified. For more information on any modifications, see the series page on the Legislation Register for the compiled law.
Self‑repealing provisions
If a provision of the compiled law has been repealed in accordance with a provision of the law, details are included in the endnotes.
Threat abatement plan
for competition and land degradation by rabbits
2008
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage
and the Arts
ISBN 978-0-642-55395-9
© Commonwealth of Australia 2008
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth, available from the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to:
Assistant Secretary
Biodiversity Conservation Branch
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage
and the Arts
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601
This publication and its background document are available on the internet at: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/tap-approved.html
They are also available by emailing the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Community Information Unit, at ciu@environment.gov.au
or freecall 1800 803 772.
This plan should be cited as: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) (2008). Threat abatement plan for competition and land degradation by rabbits, DEWHA, Canberra.
Front cover photo: Supplied by Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre
Technical editing and production management: Biotext Pty Ltd
Design and artwork: Design Direction
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Threat abatement plans 1
1.2 Threat abatement plan for rabbits 2
1.2.1 The threat 2
1.2.2 The impacts 2
1.2.3 Managing the threat 2
1.2.4 The review of the 1999 TAP 3
1.2.5 Involvement of stakeholders 3
2 Objectives and actions 4
Objective 1 4
Objective 2 6
Objective 3 7
Objective 4 8
Objective 5 9
3 Duration, cost, implementation and evaluation of the plan 10
3.1 Duration and cost of the plan 10
3.2 Implementing the plan 11
3.3 Evaluating implementation of the plan 11
Appendix A: Species affected by rabbits 12
Glossary 20
Acronyms and abbreviations 22
References 23
1 Introduction
This threat abatement plan (TAP) establishes a national framework to guide and coordinate Australia’s response to the impacts of rabbits on biodiversity. It identifies the research, management and other actions needed to ensure the long-term maintenance of native species and ecological communities affected by competition and land degradation caused by rabbits. It replaces the threat abatement plan for feral rabbits published in 1999 (EA 1999a).
This plan should be read in conjunction with the publication Background document for the threat abatement plan for competition and land degradation by rabbits (DEWHA 2008). The background document provides information on rabbit characteristics, biology and distribution; impacts on environmental, economic, social and cultural values; and current management practices and measures.
1.1 Threat abatement plans
Under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), the Australian Government develops TAPs and facilitates their implementation. To progress the main strategic development actions, the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) assesses the potential for partnerships and co-investment with other government agencies, industry and other stakeholders. An important part of implementation of the TAP is ensuring that knowledge of improved abatement methods is disseminated to potential users.
Mitigating the threat of invasive species is a matter of developing, applying and integrating a number of control methods, not relying on one method. It also requires understanding and addressing social and economic factors; for example, through supporting the efforts of private landholders and leaseholders to manage invasive species on their lands for biodiversity conservation and primary production. In addition, research and development programs for controlling pest species need to integrate the interests of both primary production and environmental conservation.
Regional natural resource management plans and site-based plans provide the best scale and context for developing operational plans to control invasive species. They allow primary production and environmental considerations to be jointly addressed, and control to be integrated across the local priority vertebrate pests within the scope of other natural resource management priorities.
The national coordination of pest animal control activities occurs under the Australian Pest Animal Strategy, released in 2007 by the Natural Resource Management and Primary Industries Ministerial councils. The Vertebrate Pests Committee, comprising representatives from all Australian, state and teritory governments, has responsibility for implementation of the strategy. This TAP provides guidance for the management of rabbits within that broader context.
1.2 Threat abatement plan for rabbits
1.2.1 The threat
The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) was deliberately released on the Australian mainland in the mid to late 1800s, and is now widely distributed over a large part of the Australian mainland, in Tasmania and on many offshore islands. Rabbits are well adapted to climatic conditions in much of Australia and occur in all states and territories. Rabbits, along with foxes and cats, are considered to be Australia’s most serious vertebrate pests; rabbits are the country’s most abundant small mammal (with the possible exception of the introduced house mouse) and severely affect native flora and fauna, vegetation communities, landforms, geomorphic processes and sensitive sites, as well as primary industries. This situation continues despite the availability and application of chemical and physical control methods, and the release of the biological control agents myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD).
Competition and land degradation by feral rabbits are listed as a key threatening process under the EPBC Act and pose a threat to a large number of native species (see Appendix A), although impacts from rabbits are not restricted to these species.
1.2.2 The impacts
Rabbits have a number of characteristics that help to explain their invasiveness and the magnitude of their impact. For example, their warrens protect them from predators and climatic extremes. Other attributes include their extreme fecundity and their ability to colonise a wide range of habitats.
Rabbits have direct impacts on native flora and fauna; for example, by grazing on native vegetation and thus preventing regeneration, and by competing with native fauna for food and shelter. They also have indirect and secondary effects, such as supporting populations of introduced cats and foxes, denuding vegetation and thereby exposing fauna species (e.g. burrowing petrels) to increased predation, and digging and browsing leading to a loss of vegetation cover and consequent slope instability and soil erosion.
1.2.3 Managing the threat
As rabbits are so widely established in Australia, the focus of management is generally on abating their impacts rather than prevention or eradication. However, eradication may be achievable in isolated areas such as small reserves and offshore islands; for example, a program for the eradication of rabbits and rodents from Macquarie Island has been initiated. In many areas, such as the rangelands, rabbit control is heavily dependent on biocontrol. Sustained control of rabbits is feasible and has been achieved in some large areas using integrated control that combines well-planned, timely poisoning, warren ripping and warren fumigation, after rabbits have been reduced by drought or disease (Cooke 1993). Control efforts should be targeted to protect sites where rabbits pose the greatest threat to biodiversity. At these sites, rabbit populations must be suppressed and managed.
Interactions between pest species mean that control of rabbits can have effects on other invasive animals, such as foxes and cats. For example, a study in inland Australia found that cat and fox numbers fell after a major reduction in rabbit numbers caused by RHD (Bowen and Read 1998). Similarly, monitoring of sites across Australia for two years after the release of RHD found some recovery of native vegetation had occurred at most sites (Sandell and Start 1999). In contrast, eradication of cats from some islands has led to an increase in the rabbit population, resulting in extreme environmental damage.[1]
Progress in rabbit control must be monitored to ensure that objectives are met, and to allow management options to be adapted to changing circumstances. Best-practice management of rabbits must involve reduction of the threat not only to targeted threatened species, but also to all native plant and animal species that may be affected by rabbit competition and land degradation.
1.2.4 The review of the 1999 TAP
In accordance with the requirements of the EBPC Act, the original TAP for feral rabbits (EA 1999a) was reviewed in 2004–05 by the Bureau of Rural Sciences (BRS) (Hart 2005) as part of a broader review encompassing the TAPs for foxes (EA 1999b), cats (EA 1999c) and goats (EA 1999d).
The BRS review found that it was difficult to accurately determine the extent to which the TAPs had reduced the impacts of rabbits on biodiversity. This reflects the current paucity of nationally consistent data on the ranges and densities of rabbits and their impacts, and the difficulties of linking outcomes in population changes to the outputs of the rabbit TAP. The invasive species indicator data to be produced under the National Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (NRMMC 2003) should improve the availability of continental overview data over the next year or so.
The BRS surveyed a broad range of stakeholders and assessed a range of projects commissioned by the Department of the Environment and Heritage (now the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts) that were developed under the auspices of the existing TAPs. This has helped to identify actions that will need to be initiated or continued into the future. The review concluded, however, that the rabbit-related projects that were assessed had positively contributed to reducing the impacts of rabbits. Furthermore, projects have addressed specific pest control needs in high-priority locations. Of the 26 actions in the 1999 TAP for rabbits, many were targeted by at least one project, and almost half the rabbit actions had been fully completed through one or more projects. The general breakdown of project types fell into the categories of research and development, on-ground control and a small number of extension projects.
The BRS review proposed a number of changes to the actions in the original TAP, but recommended that the objectives remain substantially unchanged. The review suggested that the implementation of the revised rabbit TAP should give priority to improved national engagement, integrated pest animal control, flexibility in implementation, setting priorities for research, follow-through with research and development, and establishment of a new advisory panel for vertebrate TAPs. The review also recommended that the revised plan include measures to enhance existing processes through, for example, regional processes, control and monitoring techniques that support on-ground management, and monitoring of key projects according to national protocols.
This document replaces the 1999 TAP. It incorporates the knowledge gained in the intervening years and has been modified in line with recommendations from the review. The TAP aims to guide the responsible use of public resources and the best outcome for native species and ecological communities threatened by competition and land degradation caused by rabbits. The plan seeks to achieve these outcomes by recognising the opportunities and limitations that exist, and ensuring that field experience and research are used to further improve management of rabbits. The activities and priorities under the TAP will need to adapt to changes as they occur.
1.2.5 Involvement of stakeholders
The successful implementation of this TAP will depend on a high level of cooperation between landholders, community groups, local government, state and territory conservation and pest management agencies, and the Australian Government and its agencies. Success will depend on all participants assessing rabbit impact and allocating adequate resources to achieve effective on-ground control of rabbits at critical sites, improve the effectiveness of control programs, and measure and assess outcomes. Various programs in natural resource management, at national, state and regional levels, can make significant contributions to implementing the plan.
Objectives and actions
The goal of this TAP is to minimise the impact of rabbit competition and land degradation on biodiversity in Australia and its territories by:
• protecting affected native species, broadscale vegetation and ecological communities, and
• preventing further species and ecological communities from becoming threatened.
To achieve this goal, the plan has five main objectives, developed through the review of the previous TAP (Hart 2005) and consultation with experts. These objectives are to:
prevent rabbits from occupying new areas in Australia and eradicate rabbits from high- conservation-value ‘islands’
promote the maintenance and recovery of native species and ecological communities that are affected by rabbit competition and land degradation
improve knowledge and understanding of rabbit impacts and interactions with other species and other ecological processes
improve the effectiveness, target specificity, integration and humaneness of control options for rabbits, and
increase awareness of all stakeholders of the objectiv
This is an opening excerpt, not the complete document.