Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747:reg:4:p32
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 32/80)
Character Range: 92719–95743

delivery of the on-ground actions covered in the other 5 objectives:

Cross cutting:

Objective 1 – Coordinate and enhance the legislative, regulatory and planning frameworks.

Objective 2 – Plan and implement cat management programs within an evidence-based framework, and use this to help maintain broad community and stakeholder support.

Objective 3 – Undertake research on cat ecology and impacts to inform management undertaken across multiple objectives.

Objective 4 – Refine existing tools and their use, and develop new tools, for directly controlling feral cats.

On-ground action:

Objectives 5 to 9 focus on reducing cat impacts using and refining management approaches that are already available, or at an advanced stage of development and thus likely to become available within the life of this plan (i.e. 10 years).

Objective 5 – Prevent cats from spreading further, to islands that are currently without cats.

Objectives 6, 7 and 8 are structured hierarchically to deliver protection to native species depending on how cat-susceptible they are, and therefore what level of feral cat control is required. In reality, susceptibility to cat predation is a continuum, both across species and even within species that exist over large areas, or across a range of habitat types. The objectives are organised in this way to reflect the overall goal of the plan, which is to ensure the recovery and long-term persistence of all affected native species, especially threatened species, island populations and susceptible breeding populations of seabirds. This plan prioritises species whose existence is most imperilled by cats (i.e. cat susceptible species), because such prioritisation is likely to have the greatest impact on reducing the likelihood of species becoming extinct, and enabling recovery. However, in some situations, or operating within the cat-susceptibility levels described in Objectives 6, 7 and 8, it may be appropriate to also recognise some prioritisation for managing cats to benefit culturally significant (to help maintain or restore cultural values) and ecologically important (to help maintain or restore ecological function) species. Objective 8 recognises the importance of efforts in the broader landscape, beyond cat-free islands and fenced havens, and for species other than those currently threatened.

Objective 6 – Protect the most cat-susceptible species: Remove and exclude cats from an expanded network of cat-free islands and fenced havens, and manage those havens to maintain or enhance their conservation values.

Objective 7 – Protect species with moderate to high cat-susceptibility: Suppress feral cat density in and near prioritised populations of these species.

Objective 8 – Reduce the burden of cat predation across all native species using integrated management of habitat and species interactions over large areas.

Note that because these objectives are structured according to the cat-susceptibility of native species, many actions will provide benefits across