ALCA welcomes the draft recovery plan and urges the Department to keep the clear wording that protects the habitat greater gliders depend on, and to clearly explain what the Recovery Team will do to coordinate and track the plan’s progress.
The greater glider is Australia’s largest gliding marsupial. Once widespread across eastern Australia, it has declined sharply due to habitat loss, fragmentation, inappropriate fire regimes and climate change. They act as an indicator of ecosystem health.
ALCA supports the draft recovery plan and highlights two essentials for successful recovery: keeping strong habitat‑protection language and a well-resourced national recovery team to drive implementation:
- Maintaining forest structure is essential. The plan rightly identifies that the structural attributes of the forest must be maintained to halt decline and support long‑term recovery.
- A clearly defined, well‑resourced Recovery Team is crucial. ALCA recommends that the plan explicitly set out the Recovery Team’s role in coordinating actions, tracking progress, and regularly evaluating effectiveness through time‑bound indicators and national reporting frameworks.
Image: Bethany Swag/Unsplash
