Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2009L02536:reg:1:p1
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2009L02536
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 1 (pt 1/2)
Character Range: 810–3864

1                        Summary

1.1                   Rationale for a threat abatement plan
Human dispersal and colonisation over the last few millennia has spread four species of Eurasian rodents to many of the world's islands. These rodents are: ship, or black, rats (Rattus rattus); Norway, or brown, rats (R. norvegicus); Pacific rats (R. exulans); and house mice (Mus musculus). Together with other exotic pests, they are a major threat to native biodiversity on islands. Australian islands have been no exception, especially since European colonisation. Exotic rodents, particularly ship rats and perhaps mice, have been a key (and often the critical) cause of extinction, extirpation (local population loss) and decline of many native species, adverse changes to island ecosystems, as well as economic damage to island peoples' livelihoods and potentially to their health. The presence of rodents on islands also precludes many positive options to restore island values, and their presence on mainland Australia and elsewhere presents an ongoing risk to biodiversity. For Australian islands not currently invaded there is also a high risk.

Managing the threat from exotic rodents to island biodiversity therefore requires in situ management, by eradication or sustained control on invaded islands, reduction of the risk that rodent-free islands will be invaded, and/or timely reaction to invasions when quarantine is breached.

In 2006 the Australian Government listed exotic rodents on islands as a key threatening process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) and initiated the development of a threat abatement plan (hereafter the plan) for rats and mice on islands less than 100 000 ha in area. This plan and its background document (Commonwealth of Australia 2008) provide a national framework to guide and coordinate Australia's management of exotic rodents on islands to remove, mitigate and prevent their impacts on native species (Appendix A) and ecological communities.

1.2                   Objectives of the plan
The plan contains three objectives, and a series of actions that will be required to achieve them. Knowledge gaps and other constraints and uncertainties and the need for stakeholder commitment and capacity building are identified in each strategic objective. The objectives are to:
    * eradicate exotic rodents from high-priority islands
    * mitigate the impacts of exotic rodents on biodiversity values on high-priority islands where they cannot be eradicated, and
    * prevent the invasion of islands currently free of exotic rodents.

1.3                   Actions under the Threat Abatement Plan
The threat to biodiversity from exotic rodents on islands is clear but manageable. Generic actions and those required to achieve the objectives are noted in this plan. Each action is prioritised and presented with an assessment of the current 'state of play' and with ways to measure progress.

1.4                   Outcomes of the actions
As the plan objectives