Important issues facing insect conservation in Australia: now and into the future

Studies of insect biodiversity and conservation in Australia have been severely limited by the many undescribed species and paucity of taxonomists and insect ecologists. In this review, I discuss important issues facing insect conservation, namely, key threatening processes, threats to habitats and ecological communities, the importance of maintaining insect interactions, the value of vegetation remnants in agricultural ecosystems and the importance of community participation, and provide recommendations for the conservation management of invertebrates and their habitats. Major threats to insect biodiversity continue from habitat loss through broadscale clearing of native vegetation, invasion by weeds, habitat fragmentation, loss of natural corridors and inappropriate fire regimes. Other threats include disturbance of plant communities on hilltops, creek embankments and in water courses, pesticide regimes, trampling and grazing by stock and feral animals, and exotic predators. Climate change affects those insects constrained by their thermal and moisture tolerances (climate envelopes), potentially influencing their distribution, development and reproduction, by disrupting diapause and aestivation or inducing torpor. Protected areas under State jurisdiction are at risk without Commonwealth protection and increasingly threatening those insects occurring only in national parks and other conservation areas. For effective conservation of mainland national parks, overarching national EPBC Act legislation is needed to protect parks for conservation of animal and plant diversity and natural landscapes. Retention of native vegetation as refuges for beneficial insects near farmlands is known to contribute to environmentally clean pest control. Information on conservation of beneficial insects and their dependence on native plants as habitats is needed by farmers to promote identification and protection of natural refuges for pollinators, parasitoids and predators and to support the case against indiscriminate tree clearing. Important community conservation activities are underway in several States and Territories, but to be effective, increased support and funding from appropriate agencies is required.