Australia is one of the world's most biodiverse countries — and one of the most ecologically damaged. Ranked as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, Australia has the highest rate of mammal extinction of any country on Earth. Invasive species, habitat loss, climate change, and altered fire regimes have devastated native ecosystems. Philanthropic grants for biodiversity conservation are among the most urgent environmental investments available.
Extinction record: Australia has lost more than 50 mammal species since European settlement — more than any other continent. Bilbies, bettongs, quolls, and many more are threatened or extinct. Birds, reptiles, frogs, and invertebrates have fared similarly.
Threatened species: The Australian Government lists more than 1,900 species as threatened under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The list has grown substantially over recent years, reflecting accelerating ecosystem decline.
Habitat loss: Clearing of native vegetation for agriculture, urban development, and mining has reduced and fragmented habitat across most of Australia's productive landscapes. Clearing rates, particularly in Queensland, continue to add to habitat loss.
Invasive species: Introduced predators — particularly feral cats and foxes — are responsible for the majority of Australian mammal extinctions and continue to devastate native fauna. Feral herbivores (rabbits, pigs, goats, deer, horses) degrade habitat. Invasive plants overwhelm native vegetation.
Fire regime change: Changed fire regimes — both suppression and catastrophic fire events — have altered Australian ecosystems. The 2019-20 Black Summer fires burned approximately 18.6 million hectares, killing or displacing an estimated 3 billion animals.
Climate change: Climate change is intensifying pressure on already-stressed Australian ecosystems — shifting species distributions, intensifying droughts, bleaching coral reefs, and increasing fire risk.
Government investment
The Australian Government funds biodiversity conservation through:
- EPBC Act administration and recovery plans
- National Landcare Program: Funding landholders for environmental stewardship
- Biodiversity Fund: Some investment in carbon and biodiversity outcomes
- Parks Australia: Management of Commonwealth national parks and reserves
State governments manage state parks and reserves and provide landowner support through various programmes.
Conservation organisations
Feral predator control and eradication
Managing cats and foxes is the most critical conservation intervention in Australia. Fenced sanctuaries (built by Australian Wildlife Conservancy and others), island eradications, and baiting programmes protect populations of threatened mammals. Grants for predator management save species.
Private land conservation
Most of Australia's biodiversity occurs on private land, not in national parks. Conservation covenants (permanent protection agreements on private properties), conservation agreements, and environmental stewardship payments incentivise private landholders to protect and restore habitat. Bush Heritage, TNC, and similar organisations work in this space.
Threatened species recovery
Species with small, declining populations need intensive management — captive breeding, translocation, habitat management, monitoring. Recovery actions for Australia's most threatened species require sustained funding beyond what government recovery plans provide.
Large-scale ecological restoration
Restoring cleared and degraded native vegetation at landscape scale — millions of trees and shrubs in ecologically meaningful configurations — creates connectivity and habitat. Greening Australia and state-based restoration programmes operate at this scale.
Indigenous Protected Areas and ranger programmes
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities manage significant areas of land and sea under Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs). Indigenous rangers — funded through the Working on Country and Indigenous Protected Area ranger programmes — conduct fire management, feral animal control, weed management, and monitoring. These programmes combine conservation outcomes with Indigenous employment and cultural continuity. Philanthropy supports programmes beyond government funding.
Marine conservation
Australia's marine environment — including the Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo Reef, and extensive Commonwealth Marine Reserves — needs sustained investment. Coral reef monitoring and restoration, sustainable fisheries advocacy, and plastic pollution reduction are priority areas.
Conservation science and monitoring
Good conservation decisions require good data. Environmental DNA monitoring, remote sensing, camera trapping, species distribution modelling, and long-term monitoring programmes generate the evidence that guides management. Grants for conservation science build the knowledge base.
Climate adaptation for biodiversity
As the climate changes, species and ecosystems need help adapting — through assisted migration, identifying climate refugia, and managing the compounding stresses on already-threatened species. Conservation science for climate adaptation is a frontier requiring philanthropic investment.
Scale matters: Australia's biodiversity crisis is a landscape-scale problem. Individual reserves are not sufficient; connectivity across landscapes, managed at multiple-property scale, is essential. Funders who think at landscape scale produce more significant conservation outcomes.
Long time horizons: Ecological restoration takes decades; species recovery takes generations. Conservation funders need patient capital and long commitments.
Indigenous leadership: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been managing Australian landscapes for 65,000 years and have deep ecological knowledge. Effective conservation now increasingly recognises Indigenous governance and leadership as essential — not optional — for landscape-scale conservation.
Threatened taxa that aren't charismatic: Funding tends to concentrate on charismatic megafauna — mammals, eagles, sea turtles. But insects, invertebrates, native grasses, reptiles, and fungi are equally important ecologically and often more threatened. Grants that reach beyond charismatic species strengthen broader ecosystem function.
Tahua's grants management platform supports environmental funders and conservation organisations in Australia — with the grant tracking, geographic data management, and impact measurement tools that help funders invest effectively in Australia's nature recovery.