Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747:reg:4:p27
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 27/80)
Character Range: 78875–81993

broadly.

     6 Guiding principles for plan development and implementation

The threat abatement plan has been developed, and should be implemented, in accordance with the following guiding principles:

1. Stakeholder groups with interests in cat management and welfare should be respectfully engaged.

A public that understands, and is engaged with, the issues associated with cat management will help provide the social licence required to implement this threat abatement plan. Although cats contribute to substantial environmental harm, pet cats are also much-loved family companions. It is essential that feral (and pet) cat management planning and implementation engages broadly and respectfully with all sectors that have a stake in this issue.

Compared with people in other countries, the Australian public already has a high level of awareness about the impacts of feral and pet cats on native wildlife, and generally supports management to reduce those impacts. The co-benefits of cat management for cat welfare, human health, and livestock production outcomes, in addition to biodiversity outcomes, are now well-established, and provide a basis for development and implementation of cat management that provides beneficial outcomes to all stakeholders. Focusing on the multiple benefits of improved cat management will help to maintain broad support for managing feral cats in natural environments and will encourage the public to contribute to abatement through enhanced management of pets, and feral cats around towns.

Furthermore, given the adverse impacts of cat-borne diseases on livestock production, cat management should, where possible, be coordinated across the conservation and agricultural sectors.

2. The management of feral cats should incorporate and support the management objectives and expertise of First Nations people, and be appropriate to local contexts including local cultural values and perspectives.

The introduction of cats has diminished, and continues to diminish, cultural and ecological values for First Nations people, changing the nature of Country for which they hold cultural and spiritual responsibility. In some regions, as feral cats supplanted native species, they became a food source and bush medicine. The knowledge of First Nations people can help guide the management of feral cats. First Nations people manage a very large proportion of the continent, including many areas critical for the conservation of threatened species and ecological communities, and supporting their involvement in cat management is critical to the success of this threat abatement plan. Supporting First Nations people to manage cats can provide social and cultural co-benefits, as well as environmental benefits. This principle aligns with Target 16 in the Threatened Species Action Plan 2022-2032 ("First Nations-led recovery activities for threatened species and ecological communities are increased").

3. Programs to reduce cat impacts should use actions that are justified by optimising biodiversity outcomes, overall humaneness, and the sustainability of the action(s).

Cats