Incorporating detectability of threatened species into environmental impact assessment

GE Garrard; SA Bekessy; MA Mccarthy; BA Wintle

Journal article

Incorporating detectability of threatened species into environmental impact assessment

GE Garrard, SA Bekessy, MA Mccarthy, BA Wintle

Conservation Biology | Published : 2015

DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12351

Abstract

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a key mechanism for protecting threatened plant and animal species. Many species are not perfectly detectable and, even when present, may remain undetected during EIA surveys, increasing the risk of site-level loss or extinction of species. Numerous methods now exist for estimating detectability of plants and animals. Despite this, regulations concerning survey protocol and effort during EIAs fail to adequately address issues of detectability. Probability of detection is intrinsically linked to survey effort; thus, minimum survey effort requirements are a useful way to address the risks of false absences. We utilized 2 methods for determining appropri..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers

Georgia Garrard Author

Sarah Bekessy Author

Michael McCarthy Author

Brendan Wintle Author

Related Projects (2)

Resource allocation for efficient environmental management

The world faces a range of pressing environmental problems such as loss of biodiversity, invasion of pests and weeds, high greenhouse gas em..

From prediction to adaptation: responding to rapid ecosystem shifts under climate change

Nobody knows exactly how climate change will affect the ecosystems on which we depend for our own existence, though negative impacts are wid..

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

G.E.G. was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award and an ARC Linkage Grant (LP0454979). B.A.W., M.A.M., and S.A.B. are supported by ARC Future Fellowships FT100100819, FT100100923, and FT130101225. B.A.W., G.E.G., M.A.M., and S.A.B. were supported by funding from the National Environment Research Program Environmental Decisions Hub and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions.