The cost of recovering Australia's threatened species

April E Reside; Josie Carwardine; Michelle Ward; Chuanji Yong; Ruben Venegas Li; Andrew Rogers; Brendan A Wintle; Jennifer Silcock; John Woinarski; Mark Lintermans; Gary Taylor; Anna F V Pintor; James E M Watson

doi:10.1038/s41559-024-02617-z

The cost of recovering Australia's threatened species

Nat Ecol Evol. 2024 Dec 23. doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02617-z. Online ahead of print.

Authors

April E Reside^{1

2}, Josie Carwardine³, Michelle Ward^{4

5

6}, Chuanji Yong^{4

5

7}, Ruben Venegas Li^{4

5}, Andrew Rogers^{4

5}, Brendan A Wintle⁸, Jennifer Silcock^{4

5}, John Woinarski⁹, Mark Lintermans^{10

11}, Gary Taylor¹², Anna F V Pintor¹³, James E M Watson^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ School of the Environment, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. a.reside@uq.edu.au.
² Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. a.reside@uq.edu.au.
³ CSIRO, Land and Water, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁴ School of the Environment, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵ Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁶ Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia.
⁷ School of Agriculture and Environment, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
⁸ Melbourne Biodiversity Institute, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁹ Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
¹⁰ Centre for Applied Water Science, Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia.
¹¹ Fish Fondler Pty Ltd, Bungendore, New South Wales, Australia.
¹² Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, and School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
¹³ Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

PMID: 39715952
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02617-z

Abstract

Accounting for the cost of repairing the degradation of Earth's biosphere is critical to guide conservation and sustainable development decisions. Yet the costs of repairing nature through the recovery of a continental suite of threatened species across their range have never been calculated. We estimated the cost of in situ recovery of nationally listed terrestrial and freshwater threatened species (n = 1,657) across the megadiverse continent of Australia by combining the spatially explicit costs of all strategies required to address species-specific threats. Individual species recovery required up to 12 strategies (mean 2.3), predominantly habitat retention and restoration, and the management of fire and invasive species. The estimated costs of maximizing threatened species recovery across Australia varied from AU$0-$12,626 per ha, depending on the species, threats and context of each location. The total cost of implementing all strategies to recover threatened species in their in situ habitat across Australia summed to an estimated AU$583 billion per year, with management of invasive weeds making up 81% of the total cost. This figure, at 25% of Australia's GDP, does not represent a realistic biodiversity conservation budget, but needs to be accounted for when weighing up decisions that lead to further costly degradation of Australia's natural heritage.