Engagement Summary: Reporting detections of Southern Greater Glider
The Conservation Regulator released the draft Guidance Note: Reporting detections of Southern Greater Gliders (draft procedure) through the Engage Victoria website from 29 April 2021 to 9 July 2021. Public feedback was sought on the draft procedure. In addition to consultation via the Engage Victoria website, the Conservation Regulator notified a range of stakeholders of the consultation process. The feedback received has been analysed by the Conservation Regulator and other experts internal to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), and this expert analysis has been used to refine and improve the draft Guidance Note: Reporting detections of Southern Greater Gliders. This report summarises the feedback received.
To make survey requirements clearer, the Conservation Regulator has created a guide to help members of the community carry out Greater Glider surveys. The guide outlines what survey methods and information are required to submit a valid Greater Glider report to the Conservation Regulator.
Until recently, under the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014 (amended 2021) (the Code) and the Management Standards and Procedures for Timber Harvesting Operations in Victoria’s State Forests 2021 (the MSPs), specific protections for Greater Glider existed only in East Gippsland. In November 2019, the Victorian Government made the Greater Glider Action Statement. Both the Code of Practice and the Action Statement are based on detections of Greater Gliders, numbers of Greater Gliders in an area that trigger additional measures for the protection of Greater Gliders.
Surveys need to be carried out in a way that meets minimum quality standards and involve good data collection methods. This maximises the effectiveness of the survey effort and ensures the requirements of the Code of Practice and the Action Statement are appropriately applied.
Members of the community regularly submit reports of Greater Glider sightings to the Conservation Regulator; however, the Conservation Regulator has found that these reports are often being submitted without all the right information. This sometimes makes it difficult to apply the pre-existing and new protections.
Summary of submissions received
A total of 21 submissions were received in response to the consultation draft. Key issues raised included:
- That variations should be made to requirements under the guidance compared with what is stated in the Code to better protect the Greater Glider.
- Feedback on the language used in the Guidance document generally to improve clarity and accuracy (i.e., reflecting what is in the code, species names etc).
- Technical requirements relating to transects.
- Concerns that requirements are too complicated for citizen scientists.
Summary of responses to questions
The following table shows the results of questions asked via the Engage Victoria website:
1. Are you clear what is the purpose of the Guidance Note?
Yes 75.00%
No 25.00%
2. Does the Guidance Note give you enough information about what the Conservation Regulator’s role is in protecting Greater Gliders, the types of protections that can be put in place, and how to submit a report to the Conservation Regulator?
Yes 62.50%
No 37.50%
3. Do you understand survey requirements for reporting sightings of Greater Gliders?
Yes 62.50%
No 37.50%
4. Do you understand the requirements for transect shape and placement?
Yes 50.00%
No 50.00%
5. Does the Guidance Note give you enough information about how the Conservation Regulator assesses a report?
Yes 85.71%
No 14.29%
6. Does the Guidance Note give you enough information about what happens with the information once a report is received?
Yes 71.43%
No 28.57%
Summary of changes
The Conservation Regulator has incorporated relevant feedback received from the consultation process – Spotlighting and Call Playback.
The Guidance Note has been updated to be clearer and more effective in its purpose of explaining the minimum requirements required to lodge a successful Forest Report.
The following key changes have been made in response to community feedback:
Improved formatting of the Guidance Note to make it easier to read. This includes altering the layout to ensure all relevant information is grouped together.
Amendments have been made to ensure consistency with terminology used within the Action Statement and the legislative framework (the MSP’s and The Code).
Where the reasoning for requirements is ambiguous, reference to the legislative instrument has been included. For example under the number of species required to trigger a prescription it states “substantial populations located in isolated or unusual habitat” this now references the specific instrument this is drawn from; “Table 4 Detection based Forest Management Zoning (FMZ) rules for fauna Table Planning Standards for timber harvesting operations in Victoria’s State forests 2014” an incorporated document to the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014 (the Code).
Some statements made throughout the document have been amended to improve clarity and confirm they are consistent with the requirements of the Code and the MSPs; for example, the statement “the Conservation Regulator undertakes further field verification, during which no harvesting will occur in the vicinity of the detections” has been amended to “the Conservation Regulator undertakes further field verification, during which the relevant management actions will be implemented in the vicinity of the detections” to ensure it aligns with the obligations outlined in the legislative framework.
Some requirements have been amended to ensure community members are able to understand the requirements while maintaining that there are minimum requirements that need to be supplied to ensure a Forest Report can be assessed satisfactorily.
Additional information has been added to provide clearer information around transects and the reasoning around some of the requirements such as the number of observers.
In addition, the species name has been updated from Greater Glider to Southern Greater Glider to reflect new scientific information about the diversity of Greater Glider populations and to clarify the application of this guidance document.
Additional information
A proportion of the feedback also sought changes to the law. This feedback related to the number of Greater Glider sightings that trigger a prescription and the size of Special Protection Zones (SPZs) created once a detection is verified. These comments request changes to the Greater Glider Action Statement 2019 and the MSPs, and are therefore outside the scope of this guidance note.
A substantial amount of the written feedback related to details contained within the ancillary documents, the Forest Reports website - ‘Submit a report’), and the Forest Protection Survey Program’s Survey Guideline
We have made changes so that the Guidance links more clearly to the published survey standards. Doing this means that there is no unnecessary duplication of content and the risk of inconsistency is removed. The feedback received in comments on the draft guideline that are more relevant to the technical survey standards has been noted and will be able to be considered when those survey standards are revised in the future.
Updated