Victoria's Threatened List and Processes List

The following item was removed from the Threatened List in June 2024:

• Hardhead (Aythya australis)

The Final Recommendation Report for this item is available below:

Nom 904 Hardhead (Aythya australis) FRR (PDF, 460.4 KB)

Nom 904 Hardhead (Aythya australis) FRR (accessible) (DOCX, 264.6 KB)

The following item was added to the Threatened List in February 2024:

• Warm Temperate Rainforest Community

The Final Recommendation Report for this item is available below:

Nom 898 Warm Temperate Rainforest Community FRR (PDF, 266.1 KB)

Nom 898 Warm Temperate Rainforest Community FRR (accessible) (DOCX, 79.9 KB)

Administrative amendments were made to the Threatened List in June 2023 in accordance with Victoria’s obligations under the Common Assessment Method MoU.

Below is a summary of the changes:

1. Additional EPBC listings of taxa occurring in Victoria that are not currently FFG-listed: 5 species
2. Updated EPBC listings of taxa that occur in Victoria that are currently FFG-listed: 8 species
3. Corrections to the FFG Act Threatened List for EPBC listed CAM-compliant taxa: 22 species

The Final Recommendation Report contains the full list of amendments:

Nom 905 - FFG Act Threatened List amendments FRR (PDF, 455.6 KB)

Nom 905 - FFG Act Threatened List amendments FRR (DOCX, 86.4 KB)

The following item was added to the Threatened List in May 2023:

• Fat-tailed Dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata)

The following item was added to the Processes List in May 2023:

• Poisoning of native wildlife by anticoagulant rodenticides

The Final Recommendation Reports of these items are available below:

Nom 901 Fat-tailed Dunnart FRR (PDF, 450.5 KB)

Nom 901 Fat-tailed Dunnart FRR (DOCX, 266.7 KB)

Nom 902 Poisoning of native wildlife by anticoagulant rodenticides FRR
(PDF, 276.3 KB)

Nom 902 Poisoning of native wildlife by anticoagulant rodenticides FRR (DOCX, 77.2 KB)

The FFG Threatened List represents Victoria’s single operational list of threatened species. The list contains the scientific name and common name of each species, its extinction risk in Australia or Victoria and the category of threat (i.e. conservation status – Extinct, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, and for fish only, Conservation Dependent).

A threatened species is at risk of extinction in Australia if it is:

• EPBC-listed and the assessment is compliant with the conditions of the CAM; or
• endemic to Victoria.

A species is at risk of extinction in Victoria if it:

• is listed under the EPBC Act but the national assessment was not CAM-compliant; or
• it has been assessed as not threatened nationally but is threatened in Victoria; or
• it has not had a national assessment.

An updated Threatened List was published in June 2021, with further updates since then.

Note – three species that were previously listed under the FFG Act but were not assessed as part of this process remain listed under the general category of Threatened in Victoria.

The Commonwealth and all state and territory governments have signed an intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to adopt a Common Assessment Method (CAM) for assessing the conservation status of all Australian threatened species.

The CAM establishes a consistent approach to assessing and listing threatened species (including subspecies, varieties and hybrids). Assessments are based on International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria and conform to standards developed by a national Working Group representing all jurisdictions.

Under the CAM, each state or territory has a single operational list of threatened species. In practice, this means that when a species is nationally listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), Victoria adopts the same category of threat on the FFG Act Threatened List; and if a species is nominated to the Scientific Advisory Committee for listing in Victoria, it is assessed in accordance with the CAM.

In Victoria, the CAM only applies to species. Eligibility criteria for listing communities of flora and fauna and potentially threatening processes in Victoria are found in the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Regulations 2020.

Each species is assessed against the IUCN criteria, including the population extent and number, degree of decline and ongoing and future threats. A species may be assessed as threatened based on one or more of these criteria. The highest category of threat that a species is assessed against will apply.

Victoria’s  FFG Act Threatened List and the previously used Victorian Advisory Lists were reviewed and consolidated in line with the CAM through the Conservation Status Assessment (CSA) project (2019-2021) to achieve the new FFG Act Threatened List we use today.

Under the FFG Act, if the conservation status of a listed species requires changing, or for species to be added to the list, they must have a CAM-compliant assessment. EPBC-listed species that do not have a CAM-compliant assessment are termed “legacy” species.

In Victoria, the CSA project assessed species only in Victoria and the assessment therefore applies only to their status in Victoria. This can be different to the EPBC listing status. Over time all the legacy species will be re-assessed under the CAM. This means that during this transition period, some species will be listed under different categories under the FFG Act and EPBC Act as the status of a species under a non-CAM compliant EPBC listing may be different from its CAM-compliant Victorian status.

Federally, a species’ EPBC status applies for any processes or regulations under that legislation. Once the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water undertakes a CAM-compliant national assessment, Victoria will then be required to adopt their status under the FFG Act, as per the CAM MoU.

Some EPBC-listed species met the criteria for a higher category when assessed at the Victorian scale, but under the CAM, can only be listed with their national status (as long as it is CAM-compliant). For example, a species with a CAM-compliant national assessment and listed under the EPBC Act as Vulnerable, may be considered Endangered within its Victorian range, but will be listed as Vulnerable on the FFG Threatened List. However, action statements will be prepared for these species describing threats and management actions relevant in Victoria and not based on their national status.

From 2018 to 2021, the Department undertook the Conservation Status Assessment (CSA) project to re-assess the conservation status of the over 2,000 plants, animals and fungi that were considered to be rare or threatened in Victoria.

The purpose of the project was to consolidate the previous multiple lists of threatened species into a single Threatened List under the FFG Act in Victoria. This included species listed as:

• nationally threatened under the Commonwealth EPBC Act;
• threatened under the Victorian FFG Act;
• rare or threatened within the Department's Advisory Lists: the Advisory List of Threatened Invertebrate Fauna in Victoria – 2009; the Advisory List of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna – 2013; and the Advisory List of Rare or Threatened Plants in Victoria – 2014.

Species were excluded from the assessments if they:

• were not already FFG-listed and were not categorised as threatened on the Department's Advisory Lists i.e. species that were included as ‘near threatened’, ‘data deficient’ or ‘poorly known’;
• had unconfirmed taxonomy;
• had been more recently regarded as not occurring in Victoria; or
• had already been assessed under the CAM at the national level and were therefore eligible for inclusion and did not require re-assessment.

A significant number of taxa were upgraded from a lower conservation status to a higher one, particularly among the plants. There are several reasons for this:

1. Most of the changes relate to flora, as the criteria for assessment have substantially changed. The Department's Advisory List of Rare or Threatened Plants did not have a ‘Critically Endangered’ category and the FFG Threatened List does not have a ‘Rare’ category. Many species previously listed as Endangered, Vulnerable or Rare, were subsequently assessed as Critically Endangered. This does not mean that for many of these species that their status has worsened.
2. There is better information. While the Advisory List of Rare or Threatened Plants was updated in 2014, most of the information was based on 2005 data. Further data has been collected providing a better picture of the status of species and in many cases, conditions may have changed in the intervening years.
3. Consideration of climate effects was not properly considered in the older lists. Climate change-induced drying, warming and more frequent bushfires pose significant threats for many species.
4. The bushfires of 2019 and 2020 had serious impacts on the habitat of a number of species, and on the species themselves. The full impacts are still to be assessed in the field for many species, though for some species fire area and fire severity mapping indicated the likelihood of impacts. Species regarded as fire sensitive were reconsidered and some were upgraded to a higher status, based on increased past or predicted future decline.
5. Under the IUCN criteria, past and future declines are based on three generations, so for very long-lived species, e.g. large Eucalypts, consideration of decline can extend to pre-European settlement. These declines can place a species into a higher category than previously assessed.

A small number of species were downgraded from a higher conservation status. Forty-nine were reduced to Near Threatened (NT), Data Deficient (DD) or Least Concern (LC) and were not included in the List. The reasons for this are:

1. There is better information. Some species are more numerous or widely distributed than previously thought.
2. Some historic declines can’t be considered under the IUCN criteria. Past and/or future decline are calculated based on either three generations or ten years, whichever is longer. Therefore, species that have short generation times, e.g. annual plants, some amphibians, small birds and mammals, declines are only considered for up to ten years into the past or future. For species that had in the past experienced significant declines, these could not be taken into account. This means a species with a relatively broad distribution and a total population size exceeding the IUCN thresholds, though the numbers may be substantially fewer, will be assessed as LC.
3. Some species (almost entirely invertebrates) were previously regarded as threatened because there were very few records. However, for some species this was a result of incidental observations with no targeted surveys, and their small size and often cryptic habit. In cases where there was inadequate evidence to determine numbers, distribution or declines, they were assessed as DD. Further data collected on these species in the future would mean they may be nominated for inclusion in the FFG Threatened List.

Eleven species were removed from the Threatened List. Four were assessed as not threatened, based on new information. Three are species that are no longer considered native to Victoria. Four had invalid taxonomy, which means they are no longer recognised as a species.

There were only minor implications for regulation, investment programs and public land management. All the items that were assessed were either already FFG-listed or listed as rare or threatened on the published Advisory Lists.

• The Guidelines for the removal, destruction or lopping of native vegetation are incorporated into all planning schemes in Victoria and now refer to the FFG Act Threatened List. Queries should be directed to nativevegetation.support@delwp.vic.gov.au.
• Vertebrate fauna species are already protected under the Wildlife Act 1975, but there are higher penalties for taking threatened wildlife i.e. fauna listed under the FFG Act.
• FFG-listed plants, and those declared protected by Governor-in-Council (GiC) Order are protected on public land. Major groups of plants (e.g. all orchids, almost all acacias, daisies and ferns) are protected by GiC Order, so only a few additional plants will become protected, and two will become unprotected.
• Processes such as forest management planning and strategic bushfire management planning have also used the Advisory Lists in addition to the FFG Threatened List for information on taxa of conservation concern, so most threatened species have already been considered.