Question On Notice No. 887 asked in the Legislative Council on 30 August 2022 by Hon Dr Brad Pettitt
Question Directed to the: Minister for Emergency Services representing the Minister for Environment
Parliament: 41 Session: 1
Question
(1) Has
the Minister or the Director General of the Department of Biodiversity,
Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) or staff in DBCA received any nominations
for critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable ecological communities from
the public or the Threatened Ecological Communities Scientific Committee (TECSC) since
2018:
(a) if yes to (1), how many?
(2) Have
all such nominations been forwarded to the Minister for consideration of listing
under the Biodiversity Conservation Act
2016:
(a) if no to (2), why not?
(3) Are
the Minutes, records of meetings and reports of the Threatened Ecological
Communities Scientific Committee available to the public:
(a) if
yes to (3), where may they be found; and
(b) if
no to (3), why not?
(4) How
many priority ecological communities are currently being assessed by the
Scientific Committee as potential Threatened Ecological Communities (TECs)?
(5) When
did assessment of priority ecological communities by the TECSC commence?
(6) Has
any advice about priority ecological communities been provided to DBCA or the
Minister:
(a) if yes to (6), when was this advice provided; and
(b) how
many priority ecological communities were contained in the advice?
(7) Upon
recommendation from the TESC,
will the Minister be approving for listing under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 any new TECs in addition to the
current 65 that are endorsed but not yet listed under the Biodiversity
Conservation Act 2016:
(a) if
no to (7), why not?
(8) Are
recovery plans in place for all of the 65 endorsed TECs:
(a) which of the recovery plans in (8) are funded?
Answered on 11 October 2022
(1) No.
(a) Not applicable.
(2) Not applicable.
(a) Not applicable.
(3) No.
(a) Not applicable.
(b) As per the Code of Conduct for Western Australian Scientific Committees, Committee recommendations are confidential and must not be disclosed by members until after the decision on those recommendations and the outcome is published in the Government Gazette.
(4) None.
(5) 2001.
(6) Yes.
(a) 2001-2022.
(b) 390.
(7) Recommendations of the Threatened Ecological Communities Scientific Committee will be considered in accordance with the provisions of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016.
(8) No.
(a) Implementation of actions for the recovery of threatened ecological communities is delivered through funding for scientific research and on-ground operations. Many actions are taken across multiple landscapes and species (e.g. feral animal control), therefore it is not possible to identify funding allocated to specific ecological communities or individual plans. The development and implementation of recovery plans for threatened ecological communities is included in the funding allocation for Service 6 – conserving habitats, species and ecological communities.