This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Conservation groups say the Leadbeater’s possum should retain its conservation status as a critically endangered Australian species, based on new advice from the government’s scientific advisory body.

In a draft consultation document, the threatened species scientific committee says the Victorian possum meets at least one of the criteria to make it eligible for listing as critically endangered.

Under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, species only need to meet one criterion to be eligible for listing as either vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.

The forestry industry and the former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce have been pushing the government to downgrade the species’ critically endangered conservation status to open up protected areas of Victorian forest for logging.

Barnaby Joyce wants Australia's Leadbeater's possum off endangered list to boost logging Read more

Habitat loss from logging and fire are key threats to the possum, which is primarily found in mountain ash forests of Victoria’s central highlands.

The government is reviewing the possum’s listing as critically endangered and conducting public consultation until mid-August.

In its draft advice for the review, the threatened species scientific committee says there are observed and forecast total population size reductions that are high enough to meet the threshold for a critically endangered listing.

“However, the purpose of this consultation document is to elicit additional information to better understand the species’ status,” the draft states. “This conclusion should therefore be considered to be tentative at this stage, as it may be changed as a result of responses to this consultation process.”



Steve Meacher, the president of Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum, said the indication from the committee the species was still eligible for a critical listing was welcome “but there is still work to be done to ensure they hold that line and that when the recommendation eventually goes to the minister he accepts the advice”.

“Its numbers are in decline and the main issue is we are still losing habitat at a rate of knots through logging,” he said.

The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA), which nominated the species for downgrade, said the committee’s draft advice made it clear it was still inviting more submissions that would inform its final recommendation and that population estimates had been based on surveys of only 6% of potential habitat.



“The draft advice does not take into account some new evidence about the Leadbeater’s possum’s range, based on new detections, and also new evidence on the future availability of hollow-bearing trees,” a spokesman said. “This new evidence will be submitted as part of the consultation process.

“Importantly, the TSSC’s draft advice recognises that there has been a significant number of new possum sightings in the last four years, and concludes that the Leadbeater’s possum population and habitat range is significantly greater than previously thought.”

But Evan Quartermain, head of programs for Humane Society International, said the draft advice made it clear the species remained eligible for the highest level of protection.

“The scientific committee has confirmed that the Leadbeater’s possum is a critically endangered species and the EPBC Act prescribes that the absence of evidence it’s no longer threatened at this highest level leaves Minister Frydenberg with no option but to maintain its status,” he said.

The Greens’ forestry spokeswoman, Janet Rice, said the committee’s draft recommendation “considered the evidence from the AFPA and it shows there’s still a clear case the Leadbeater’s possum is critically endangered”.