Abstract for presentation at Biodiversity Extinction Crisis Conference - A Pacific Response

Gondwana Link is a regional-scale conservation initiative involving a range of groups who are working to protect, connect and restore ecosystem function from the karri forests of Australia's south west corner to the woodlands and mallee bordering the Nullarbor Plain. It is a consummate example of the type response needed to an acute conservation crisis. The Wilderness Society is contributing to Gondwana Link by undertaking a number of advocacy roles and by providing science resources to assist other groups across the link. It regards Gondwana Link as a critical part of the on-going development of its WildCountry program.
The region is an extraordinarily rich and complex ecological mosaic containing some the world's most ancient habitats. Many parts of the link are (or are becoming)degraded and fragmented, and, in a corner of the continent where rarity is commonplace, the legacy of the recent past is one of hundreds of endangered plant and animal species, declining populations of common vertebrates, ruin of waterways, outbreaks of disease and pervasive weeds and feral animals. In this talk we focus the Fitz-Stirling Operational Area, a sixty kilometer span of country situated between two of the botanically richest conservation reserves on the continent (The Fitzgerald River and Stirling Range National Parks). The land acquisition program and restoration work in the Fitz-Stirling has been a catalyst for the wider vision. We examine the science planning and principles that have underpinned the work to date. We compare and contrast these with the WildCountry science principles that promote continental scale connectivity and conclude that successful strategies will be developed only by considering connectivity at a range of scales from the micro to the continental. Connectivity requirements are not only species or process specific, but also differ dramatically with respect to the landscapes being restored.