Chance to publish your thoughts on the direction of Threatened Species legislation in Tasmania

[Jenny Calder]

Hi all,
I am forwarding a message from Bob Makinson from the Australian
Network for Plant Conservation, who is looking for an article about
"the general trajectory of threatened species legislation and
management in Tasmania from a non-government perspective".
They need an article between 500 and 1500 words by September 2nd.
If anyone would like to contribute, please let Bob know.
Bob.Ma...@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au

FWD:

Dear Jenny,

Re: Proposed issue of Australasian Plant Conservation on Threatened
Species legislation and processes around Australia (as relating to
plants).

As discussed on the phone, I am writing on behalf of the Australian
Network for Plant Conservation, a small-ish NGO that specialises in
linkage and information exchange between scientists and practitioners
(community, agency, industry) in the area of plant conservation. We
run a lot of courses and workshops.

We are producing an issue of our bulletin, Australasian Plant
Conservation, on the above theme, for publication in the last quarter
of 2008. There is no concise national summary of current legislative
and procedural frameworks for threatened plant species scheduling in
the various Australia jurisdictions. We think that such a summary,
accompanied by commentary articles, would be of interest to a wide
range of plant conservation scientists, managers and practitioners. It
would help inform debate on the evolving approaches to Threatened
Species legislation and management.

If you are not familiar with APC, it is an expert-edited (but
unrefereed) bulletin with a wide circulation among Australian plant
conservation circles. Content details for past issues are at
www.anbg.gov.au/anpc/australasian_plant_conservation.html . We try to
keep articles relatively non-technical, without being lightweight.

Might you be interested in providing an article (anywhere between 500
and 1500 words), covering:
· The Threatened Plants Action Group, it’s goals and
activities, and relationship to other groups like Wildcare;
· The general trajectory of threatened species legislation and
management in Tasmania from a non-government perspective.

This would NOT need to explain the legislation in detail – as shown
below we will have a ‘fact sheet’ summary on this, which Oberon Carter
is vetting. We would be looking to you and TPAG more for the above
informed analysis to accompany the fact sheet – perhaps constructively
critical, or not. To the extent possible it would also be very useful
to indicate the degree to which recovery actions and priority setting
processes provide a chance for non-agency people and organisations to
get involved.

We also intend to use this issue of the bulletin to explain to a wide
range of readers the new methodology for TS assessment being used in
many jurisdictions (i.e. IUCN-based categories and criteria), and the
reasons why these have superseded the old ROTAP system that remains
entrenched in the consciousness of many people.

Please note that we are NOT seeking to cover Native Vegetation
protection legislation, although reference to it will be made in the
fact sheets.

General structure of the issue: Below is an outline of the whole
issue, and of the topics to be covered in the fact sheets.

Your involvement would be most welcome.

Owing to illness I am very late in contacting you, for which I
apologise. Ideally we would like copy in to me by 1st or 2nd
September. Please let me know if you are interested and if this
deadline is feasible.

Many thanks,
Bob Makinson