The following is a communique published by Gregory Andrews, Australia's Threatened Species Commissioner, on June 12, 2015.
Agreed chair’s summary
Today I had the honour to chair a group of 21 of Australia’s key experts on the Orange-bellied Parrot
who came together at Melbourne Zoo and unanimously agreed on a high-level
urgent strategic response to the outbreak of beak and feather disease affecting
this critically endangered bird. These
people, with over 212 years of collective experience working on this bird,
included members of the Recovery Team, BirdLife Australia, Friends of the
Orange-bellied Parrot, Tasmanian, Victorian, South Australian and federal
governments, key scientists from the university sector, captive breeders, avian
experts, virologists, animal disease specialists and zoos.
Minister Hunt asked me, as the Threatened Species Commissioner, to
lead this emergency response workshop to address the beak and feather disease
outbreak and backed the Australian Government’s commitment to the Orange-bellied Parrot with an announcement of a
$525,000 injection into its recovery program.
The Tasmanian Government made a co-contribution of over $800,000. In the morning, Tasmania shared details on
the latest developments and key scientists outlined risks and opportunities
associated with the disease. After this,
we worked collaboratively to agree on a strategic response with four approaches
to keep the bird alive in the wild by focusing on:
1.
Boosting the captive breeding
and release program
2.
Adjusting management practices
in its habitat and in the captive breeding facilities
3.
Investing in more science to
better understand the disease and its effects on the parrot
4.
Improving governance, and
working and communicating together
This urgent strategic response will be implemented consistently with
the existing draft orange-bellied parrot recovery plan, which is the
overarching policy document for the bird’s recovery and protection for extinction.
The group is 100 per cent united in its commitment to work together
according to the principles of science, action and partnership to implement
this urgent strategic response which we are confident will help the parrot
through the current beak and feather disease challenge. Importantly, the group is also committed to
working collaboratively over the longer-term to do everything possible to save
the Orange-bellied Parrot from extinction in the wild. As one of Australia’s, and indeed the world’s most endangered species, the Orange-bellied Parrot deserves no
less.
Over the next two weeks, the participating organisations at the
workshop agreed to nut out actions and commitments in the urgent strategic
response over one, two, three, six and twelve month timeframes and for the response
to be reviewed in three months – my office will be
coordinating this. The Strategic Action
Planning Group of the orange-bellied parrot recovery team will be the
coordination point for this response and will be assisted by my office.
Gregory Andrews
Threatened Species Commissioner
12 June 2015
High-level urgent
strategic response 12 June 2015 - 12 June 2016
1. Boosting the captive and wild population
•
Wild population
(innovative techniques)
•
Captive
population
2. Adjusting management practices
•
Best practice
nest management
•
Managing predator
and competitor impacts
•
Best practice
feeding
•
Best veterinary
practice and biosecurity
•
Food and habitat
adequacy
3. Boosting science and understanding
•
Disease risk
analysis
•
Passive and
active vaccination
•
Genetic tools for
management
•
Feasibility of
second wild population
•
Understanding
broader threats and survival and reproduction
•
Finding and
monitoring every nest/OBP
4. Improving governance, communication and working together
•
Response coordination
•
Leadership and
decision making
•
Better
information sharing
•
Skills gap
assessment
•
Finalise and
implement the broader Recovery Plan
What heart warming news. Your dogged activism has paid off. Congrats, Debbie. I look forward to hearing how the program is going.
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