Today on National Threatened Species Day we recognise the importance of Tasmania’s Orange-bellied Parrot Program which has been successfully working to build the population of the world’s most endangered parrot.
The Tasmanian Government invested $2.5 million into a contemporary, purpose-built captive breeding facility at Five Mile Beach, doubling the captive breeding capacity for OBPs so we could maintain a viable insurance population in the long term and increase the number of birds available for release to supplement the wild population.
This has resulted in a record-breaking breeding season last year, and we are preparing for another successful year of building the population in the wild through a range of innovative actions in the species’ sole breeding grounds in remote South-West Tasmania.
National Threatened Species Day puts a spotlight on the way we are protecting our ecosystems, native plants, and animals at risk of extinction.
I’m proud that the Tasmanian Liberal Government continues to support important initiatives like the Orange-bellied Parrot Tasmania program and that we have reinforced our commitment to ensuring the survival of our threatened species through a range of projects in the 2021-22 Tasmanian Budget.
We are also working to better understand the impacts and threats to the Swift Parrot in order to prevent it from becoming extinct. We know that the migratory nature and unpredictable use of habitat is a challenge to conservation and requires coordinated action across jurisdictions and stakeholders which is why the Budget delivers $1 million over the next four years to progress key actions to support the ongoing active management and recovery of the species.
The 2021-22 Budget also re-affirms our support for the important work being done through the Save The Tasmanian Devil Program with additional funding commitments of $450,000 per year, taking our total funding for this program to approximately $1.45 million per year to restore and maintain an enduring and resilient wild devil population.
Additionally, our Government has also committed to a review of the Threatened Species Strategy and will provide $300,000 to ensure the review is comprehensive and informed by contemporary science.
Threatened Species Day is also an important opportunity to recognise and highlight the critical work of researchers, land managers, and volunteers to protect our threatened species and habitats and we thank them for their ongoing commitment to their work.