BIRDLIFE AUSTRALIA Member Communique, June 2021
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BIRDLIFE AUSTRALIA
Member Communique, June 2021
29 May 2021
Key updates, developments and outcomes from the Annual General Meeting and Board
meeting held 29 May 2021
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The 2021 Annual General Meeting of BirdLife Australia was held via livestream webinar.
The minutes of the 2020 Annual General Meeting held on 23 May 2020 were adopted as a
true and correct record of that meeting.
The Annual Report of Directors for 2020 was adopted.
The President extended a heartfelt thanks to John Barkla, BirdLife’s former President, as he
stepped down from the Board, for his decades of dedicated service to BirdLife Australia and
its predecessor organisations, and his lifetime of service to Australian birds. She also
thanked Barry Baker, former Vice-President, as he completed his term on the Board as well,
also having given enormously to the organisation in many ways. Both John and Barry were
pivotal to the merger that created this great organisation, which has come so far under their
stewardship.
The Financial Accounts and the Auditors’ Report for the year ending 31 December 2020 were
adopted.
Judith Hoyle was elected to the Board for a three-year term commencing from the closure of
the Annual General meeting.
Chief Executive Officer, Paul Sullivan, addressed the meeting and presented on BirdLife’s
Australia’s achievements in 2020 and plans for the future.
• BirdLife’s bushfire response – During the devastating 2019/20 bushfires 45 bird
taxa had more than 30% of their habitat burnt. The response from BirdLife’s
volunteers and supporters was inspiring. Rapid fire mapping was conducted so
BirdLife knew where to direct resources across a range of impacted species. A
highlight included an emergency translocation of Southern Emu-wrens on Kangaroo
Island.
• Saving birds during a pandemic – Staff and volunteers pulled together to save
birds during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Business Response Plan was developed to
enable BirdLife to continue its work to save birds.
• Birding at home – Staff, volunteers and donors were kept engaged through Birding
at Home webinars during the pandemic. Public interest in nature has increased.
• Conservation highlights – In delivering the Migratory Shorebirds Conservation
Action Plan, sites of importance were mapped, and action plans developed to protect
habitat and prioritise on the ground actions. The Beach-nesting Birds program
celebrated 15 years of conservation, which has resulted in Hooded Plovers returning
to beaches where they were once locally extinct, and their trajectory is trending
upwards. 20 Regent Honeyeaters were released into the wild and, while the mortality
BirdLife Australia Member Communique 1
June 2021
rate was disappointing, important lessons were learned for future releases. Nest
boxes were installed for the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo in south-west Victoria. A
seven-10-year commitment was secured to engage farmers in revegetating priority
landscapes in NSW for woodland birds.
• Community action to save birds – BirdLife’s campaign secured over 33,000
supporter actions to protect the Swift Parrot. BirdLife is also campaigning to stop the
development of Toondah Harbour.
• EPBC review and reform agenda – With the review of the Environment Protection
and Biodiversity Conservation Act, BirdLife is working with the Places You Love
alliance to advocate for stronger nature laws.
• BirdLife’s strategic initiatives – BirdLife’s Bird Conservation Strategy is being
updated. Strategic goals are to stop human-driven extinction of threatened birds by
2030; improve the status of 30% of threatened birds by 2030, and halt overall bird
species population declines by 2050. A Digital Engagement Transformation Project is
under way to develop a new website and Customer Relationship Management system
which will improve the experience for members and supporters.
The CEO thanked BirdLife’s supporters for their continued passion and commitment to save
our precious native birds.
The Chair announced that Allan Burbidge and Barry Baker had been elected as Fellows and
John Barkla and Brian Snape had been elected Honorary Life Membership. The Chair
congratulated the new Fellows and Honorary Life members and thanked them for their
distinguished service.
The recipients of the 2021 BirdLife Australia Distinguished Service Awards were Hazel Britton,
BirdLife Tasmania; Ralph Cooper, BirdLife Tasmania, and Kathleen Shurcliff, BirdLife Northern
Queensland. The Chair congratulated Hazel, Ralph and Kath for the very well deserved
recognition.
If you would like to view the recording of the AGM Zoom webinar please go to
https://www.birdlife.org.au/who-we-are/our-organisation/agm/.
BOARD MEETING
The Chair congratulated Judith Hoyle on her appointment to the Board and welcomed her to
her first Board meeting. The Board noted John Barkla and Barry Baker had stepped down
from the Board.
The Board also noted the progress of the Digital Engagement Transformation Project and the
update on the Bird Conservation Strategy. A paper outlining innovative financing solutions
was tabled for consideration. How Directors could represent BirdLife at events was also
discussed.
CONSERVATION & SCIENCE PROGRAMS
Science and Research
The recently implemented organisational change will better support our science and research
team to leverage partnerships and support the delivery of bird conservation programs. The
change will:
• ensure our bird conservation programs are outcomes-focused (ie there is a coherent
science-based plan with clear priorities, resource plans and targets);
• better enable science and research to support our bird conservation programs and
priorities (ie monitoring and evaluation, research knowledge gaps etc); and
BirdLife Australia Member Communique 2
June 2021
• improve collaboration with research institutions and partners (to leverage outcomes at a
broader scale).
The Research & Conservation Committee endorsed the Terms of Reference for a sub-
committee to help BirdLife develop a coherent Science & Research framework, which will
support the Bird Conservation Strategy and set clear directions and priorities.
RACC also endorsed the Theory of Change for the new Bird Conservation Strategy and
provided detailed feedback.
Campaigns
Toondah Alliance held the Lights in the Mud event to celebrate Migratory Bird Day.
BirdLife is progressing engagement with Bruny Island community residents on protection of
Swift Parrot habitat on the island. Erin Farley accompanied the Federal Environment
Minister to spot Swift Parrots in Canberra.
BirdLife will conduct research into Powerful Owl deaths as part of a campaign to ban second
generation rodenticides. BirdLife is working with the NSW Farmers Federation to stop the
state government’s proposed mass roll out of Bromadiolone to combat mouse plagues in
NSW. A letter has also been sent to the APVMA calling for them not to approve its use.
Paul Sullivan and Grainne Maguire presented at the Victorian inquiry into ecosystem
decline, advocating for strong laws, habitat protection and investment.
The EIS for the ElectraNet
Interconnector in SA was delivered, and
the identified route no longer crosses
Calperum and Critical Habitat for Black
eared miner, an outcome of BirdLife
supporters’ pressure, inside track work
and our expert submissions.
Gerard Early and Samantha Vine
presented to the Senate Inquiry into
proposed amendments for EPBC
legislation (the Standards and
Assurance Bill and Streamlining Bill).
BirdLife’s submission included a draft
Bioregional Planning standard. Places You Love is launching #missingwildlife digital
campaign to increase pressure as the government continues to pursue a regressive reform
agenda.
Places You Love continues to work with the business network on a framework outlining
critical elements of reform we can agree on. It will be sent to Minister Ley and cross-
benchers to influence reform pathway if and when negotiations begin.
Things have heated up for the BirdLife Post2020 taskforce as Parties negotiate measures,
indicators and implementation of the new Convention on Biological Diversity global
framework. The BirdLife Partnership has developed and advocated a series of position
papers to support discussions at SBSTTA24 and SBI3 (see www.birdlife.org/post2020).
BirdLife Australia Member Communique 3
June 2021Conservation Programs
The Great Cocky Count occurred in late March with over 400 sites surveyed. Reduced
numbers of birds and changes in roosting behaviour have been recorded in response to the
loss of the ‘mega roost’ in Gnangara since the last count in 2019. The ‘Adopt a Nest’
initiative is being implemented. ‘Cockatubes’ are being installed to replace natural nest
habitat lost due to recent fires across known breeding areas of Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo to
the north and north-east of Perth.
BirdLife Australia has supported a successful bid by BirdLife Pacific for the Critical Ecosystems
Partnership Fund to build KBA National Coordination Groups in Pacific Nations and will help
with the role out of KBAs in the Pacific through virtual workshops etc. BirdLife is also in the
final round for a collaborative application for Great Barrier Reef seabird monitoring over three
years with the Reef Trust. Fifty KBA Health-checks have already been received for 2021.
The KBA National Coordination group is advocating for the revision of Criterion C (intact
ecosystems) of the global KBA standard which in its current interpretation does not allow for
identification of this powerful, large type of KBA in Australia (or indeed most of the world).
Preliminary results of an analysis of Hooded Plover breeding monitoring shows 110
fledglings from 217 pairs monitored and managed, exceeding our conservation target of
0.42, with 0.51 fledglings/pair produced. The 2020 Hooded Plover Biennial Count report
surveyed 1,584 Hooded Plovers (1,526 adults) across the mainland population (88% of
known habitat). Overall, the population trend is positive, continuing to trend upward.
Birdata launched a new form this season for collection of specialised, user-restricted data
regarding Fairy Tern colonies. This coincided with the launch of best practice guidelines for
monitoring Fairy Terns and a national Fairy Tern meeting led by BirdLife.
The National Directory of Important Habitat for Migratory Shorebirds was officially launched
on 21 April 2021 (World Curlew Day). BirdLife’s newly developed Site Action Plans outline
the path to protect and improve shorebird habitat at 20 ‘lighthouse’ sites to showcase the
approach.
Under the Australian Government's Regional Bushfire Recovery Fund, three bird species
(Eastern Bristlebird, South-eastern Glossy Black-Cockatoo and Gang-gang Cockatoo) will
receive funding for projects to be completed by May 2022.
BirdLife was appointed National
Species Coordinator for Eastern
Bristlebird and South-eastern
Glossy Black-Cockatoo (until May
2022). In this role, we will be
coordinating monitoring and
reporting across projects being
delivered under the fund. All 35
Glossy Black-Cockatoo 'cockatubes'
have been installed in East
Gippsland.
Version one of the King Island
Threatened Birds CAP is complete.
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