"Little Eagle ? Draft Action Plan No 31
(2011)
The Canberra Ornithologists Group
(COG) wishes to provide comments on the Draft Action Plan for the Little Eagle,
a vulnerable species under ACT legislation.
COG notes that there has been
some input to this Action Plan from Stephen Debus, a birds of prey expert, that
the plan has a reasonable background and general information about the species,
identifies the broad threats and areas of possible actions have also been
identified. COG does not disagree
with the broad principles in the Action Plan, on page 4 for example.
However, COG is disappointed that
looking forward, there is very little detail, indeed realistic actions
identified to assist in conserving the Little Eagle as a breeding species in the
ACT, noting that there may only be a few breeding pairs left, possibly 2
breeding pairs. We believe a
critical situation has been reached and some focus in the Plan needs to be on
immediate actions to address this reality; the Action Plan does not reflect the
critical reality for the Little Eagle, which it should.
Indeed, Action Plans prepared to
date for other bird species have also tended to be based on reasonable broad
principles, but these have been light on in detailed actions and implementation,
and have generally failed to deliver improvements in those species over the last
decade. The Government needs to do
better and properly resource the implementation of these Action Plans.
We would like to see identified
and provided for in this Action Plan, some urgent priority actions:
·
protection efforts focussed on the remaining locations
where Little Eagles are known to breed, with specific plans of action for
these
·
adequately funded research programs to provide more
information where there are gaps in knowledge, for example:
-
the home ranges of Little Eagle breeding pairs, habitat use
and the possible impacts of ?Pindone? and ?1080?; we note that a similar
suggestion has been made by others, see J. Olsen, M. Osgood, M. Maconachie, G.
Dabb and M. Butterfield. (2012). Little Eagles, Whistling Kite and Swamp
Harriers in the Australian Capital Territory 2010. Canberra Bird Notes Vol 36, p155-157;
any project on home ranges and territoriality must include an assessment of prey
abundance
-
in particular, it is critical to protect the breeding pair
in the Central Molonglo which is potentially impacted by proposed urban
development in the East Molonglo, including the modifications to the river
corridor which will occur with the proposed Molonglo River Park; it is not known
how loss or modification of these rangelands will impact on this breeding pair,
even if the land use in the Central Molonglo where the current nest site is
located is unchanged
-
while some monitoring by groups such as COG and the
University of Canberra is undertaken (mentioned on page 5), this is largely by
way of voluntary effort and is simply not enough to provide the required
information.
While it is appreciated that the
ACT Flora and Fauna Committee would normally review an Action Plan after 3
years, COG believes the situation for Little Eagles is so critical that the
committee should oversight and review progress more frequently, possibly on an
annual basis after each breeding season.
By the time the Committee looks at the Plan again after 3 years, gathers
relevant information and reports, possibly four or five years will have
elapsed.
Given the critical status of the
Little Eagle in the ACT firm actions now need to be taken to protect this
species. COG therefore recommends
that:
- The status of the
Little Eagle within the ACT be upgraded from ?Vulnerable? to ?Endangered?
- A
statement in the Action Plan that progress will be assessed against the
following benchmark: ?Within a four year period from the date of the Action
Plan there will be a 100% increase in the number of successful annual
breeding events. That is, by
2016 there will be a known production of a minimum of four fledged young/per
annum?.
There is a clear incompatibility
between stated aims for the protection of Little Eagle habitat in this Action
Plan and the reality of development planning for rural (leasehold) areas in the
ACT as a whole. General reference
is made to development planning constraints in the Action Plan (eg on page 7
under socio-economic issues). In
our view, the statements here are ?wishy washy? and, therefore, the Action Plan
has no teeth.
With respect to the Molonglo
Valley, decisions have already been taken in regard to the urban planning
footprint in the East Molonglo, with little regard for protection of Little
Eagle habitat (or other raptor species habitat for that matter). The Action
Plan, therefore, seems ineffective as a basis for the protection of habitat on
rural lands and recovery of the Little Eagle, unless the planning system is
changed to have greater regard to habitat protection for ACT threatened
species. This is a particularly
important issue as we understand Little Eagle breeding is now largely confined
to leasehold lands.
One small point of clarification
on page 2, under ?behaviour and ecology?, the reference to the use of other
nests, ?other birds such as crows?.
That is correct as a general fact, but in the ACT region there are raven
species, not crows. Crow and Raven
species both occur in Australia and are in a family generally known as
corvids."
