Threat abatement plans: Strategic pest management for biodiversity conservation

In Australia, invasive terrestrial pest species have been implicated in the decline of a number of threatened species. Under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995, pest threats can be listed as Key Threatening Processes which require the preparation of Threat Abatement Plans to ameliorate the threats. This paper presents an overview of how the threat abatement planning process is being used to plan initiatives to reduce the biodiversity impacts of invasive species. The approach taken in four threat abatement plans (foxes Vulpes vulpes, feral cats Felis catus, bitou bush Chrysonthemoides monilifera and gambusia Gambusia holbrooki) is used to illustrate this process.