Threatened species
The CLC belongs to national recovery teams established by the Threatened Species Network (TSN) for six endangered species with existing populations on Aboriginal land in the CLC region.
Endangered terrestrial vertebrates in the arid rangelands include the Northern Marsupial Mole, Greater Bilby, Ampurta, Greater Desert Skink, Central Rock-rat, Common Brush-tail Possum and Night Parrot. In collaboration with TSN and other agencies such as Parks Australia (North), Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Parks and Wildlife Commission (PWCNT), the CLC plays a fundamental role in informing traditional owners of their status and threats involved in each case.
Endangered species: the bilby
The development and availability of local land management programs, like the Lajamanu, Warlpiri, Docker River, Hermansburg and Tennant Creek Rangers, is of increasing importance in the conservation effort, both in terms of community education and on-ground capacity for practical recovery efforts such as predator control.
The CLC, in conjunction with Newmont Tanami Pty Limited, have established a regional biodiversity monitoring program for the central and northern Tanami to address questions relating to wildlife persistence and abundance and the impact of current and future mining activity. Rangers groups alongside scientists undertake the surveys each year.
Traditional owner Eric Breaden with the
draft Plan of Management for Rainbow Valley
This area is a stronghold for diminishing species such as the Grey Falcon, Greater Bilby, Mulgara, Great Desert Skink, Spectacled Hare-Wallaby and a number of poorly known taxa. The CLC is also assisting with predator baiting around bilby colonies in the Tanami Desert through collaboration of Desert Wildlife Services and the Warlpiri and
Tennant Creek Ranger groups.
Central Australian Aboriginal interests and views on biodiversity continue to be presented by the CLC in several ways.
The CLC has been a member of the Indigenous Advisory Committee since it was set up under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
In 2002, the CLC was represented at a national workshop assessing the adequacy of the Commonwealth's response to the implementation of Article 8(j) of the international Convention on Biological Diversity in respect to traditional ecological knowledge and again in 2007 at the national review of the National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia’s Biological diversity.
The development of Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) is an enormous boost to the conservation of threatened species. A large area was declared around Lajamanu in the north west of our region in March 2007 and feasiilily studies are currently being carried out in an area around Docker River (April 2008)
