Is Australia ready for assisted colonization? Policy changes required to facilitate translocations under climate change.

Abstract

Assisted Colonization (AC) has been proposed as one method of aiding species to adapt to the impacts of climate change. AC is a form of translocation and translocation protocols for threatened species, mostly for reintroduction, are well established in Australia. We evaluate the information available from implementation of translocations to understand how existing policies and guidelines should be varied to plan, review and regulate AC. While the risks associated with AC are potentially greater than those of reintroductions, AC is likely to be the only available method, other than germplasm storage and establishment of captive populations, of conserving many taxa under future climate change. AC may also be necessary to maintain ecosystem services, particularly where keystone species are affected. Current policies and procedures for the preparation of Translocation Proposals will require modification and expansion to deal with Assisted Colonization, particularly in relation to risk management, genetic management, success criteria, moving associated species and community consultation. Further development of risk assessment processes, particularly for invasiveness, and guidelines for genetic management to maintain evolutionary potential are particularly important in the context of changing climate. Success criteria will need to respond to population establishment in the context of new and evolving ecosystems, and to reflect requirements for any co-establishment of interdependent species. Translocation Proposals should always be subjected to independent peer review before being considered by regulators. We conclude that consistent approaches by regulators and multilateral agreements between jurisdictions are required to minimize duplication, to ensure the risk of AC is adequately assessed and to ensure the potential benefits of AC are realized.

Translocation of imperiled species under changing climates

“…First, there must be institutional support with which to conduct the translocation. This requires that institutional structure allows the translocation, including permitting and cross‐agency cooperation . A recurrent issue in translocation is that it often involves interagency collaboration, which is fraught with pitfalls …”

“…Elements to consider include the conservation status of the site, tenure security, and minimization of opportunities for hybridization and invasiveness . Several types of sites are recommended for exclusion: sites of high species endemism, IUCN category 1 reference reserves, and fully functional threatened ecological communities . Humans have a long history of intentional and unintentional alteration of species distributions .…”

Climate Change in Oceania – A synthesis of biodiversity impacts and adaptations.

“…Such species often have limited dispersal abilities and occupy small isolated ranges where tracking shifting habitats is impossible should their niche be lost. Various frameworks recommend when to move species (Hoegh Guldberg et al 2008;Burbidge et al 2011;MacDonald Madden 2011) with these frameworks determining the risk of extinction or population decline under future projected climates and the technical likelihood of success including establishment needs to be assessed. If translocation is possible, the benefits of a translocation need to outweigh the potential ecological and socioeconomic costs.…”

“…Within each of these regions and realms, authors also discuss possible adaptations to anthropogenic climate change that limit impacts on the conservation of biodiversity. One manuscript also focuses explicitly on possibly one of the more drastic adaptation measures: the translocation of animals (Burbidge et al 2011).…”

Managing Australia’s eucalypt gene pools: assessing the risk of exotic gene flow

“…This has triggered changes in non-forestry industries such as the revegetation sector, which is moving away from the old tenant of 'local seed is best', to recognise that mixed or even climate-adjusted seed sourcing may be required to successfully revegetate areas over the long term Prober et al 2016). Global change will also have profound repercussions for native forest management, and it has been suggested that 'assisted migration' might be necessary to 'rescue' some species and ecosystems (Burbidge et al 2011;Hewitt et al 2011;Weeks et al 2011;Aitken & Bemmels 2016). Assisted migration involves moving species beyond their current range, or moving populations within a species range (sometimes referred to as 'assisted gene flow ' -Aitken & Bemmels 2016).…”