Australia is home to some of the world’s most unique wildlife — yet it also holds the record for the most mammal extinctions of any country in modern history. Despite decades of conservation policies, protected areas, and environmental programs, the number of species listed as threatened under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act continues to rise. This visual story investigates whether Australia’s conservation efforts are keeping pace with biodiversity loss.
The number of threatened ecological communities listed under Australia’s EPBC Act rose from 19 in 2000 to 89 by 2020 — an increase of nearly 370% in two decades. Major conservation programs such as Caring for our Country (2008) and responses to the 2019–20 bushfire season accelerated listings, yet the trend shows no sign of stabilising.
Among animal species, birds record the highest number of threatened species (186), followed by mammals (152) and invertebrates (112). Critically Endangered listings are concentrated in mammals and amphibians — reflecting severe pressure from invasive predators and habitat loss. Plants are excluded from this chart due to scale (1,510 threatened plant species listed under the EPBC Act) but represent by far the largest group overall.
This scatterplot examines whether states with larger proportions of protected land tend to have fewer threatened species. No clear relationship emerges — NSW has among the lowest protection rates yet the highest species count, while SA protects a relatively high proportion of land but still records over 300 threatened species. Protection alone does not explain variation in biodiversity outcomes.
Among animal groups, habitat loss is the most commonly reported threat — affecting birds more than any other group. Invasive species and diseases are the leading threat for mammals and frogs, consistent with the well-documented impact of feral cats, foxes, and chytrid fungus on Australian wildlife. Climate change is an emerging threat across all groups. Plants are excluded from this chart for scale — habitat loss also dominates threats to plant species (Ward et al., 2021).
Comparing threatened species counts and protected area coverage across states reveals notable exceptions. NSW records the highest number of threatened species despite relatively low protection coverage. By contrast, the Northern Territory has high protection rates but fewer listed species, likely reflecting lower population pressure and land clearing rates. These patterns suggest that conservation outcomes depend on more than protected area size alone — the location, quality, and management of protected areas also matter.
Australia’s biodiversity crisis is not a future problem — it is happening now. The data shows that threatened species listings have grown consistently for two decades, that habitat loss and invasive species remain the dominant drivers of decline, and that expanding protected areas has not been sufficient to reverse the trend. Some of Australia’s most biodiverse states — NSW and Queensland — have among the lowest rates of land protection, while states with high protection coverage still record hundreds of threatened species.
The evidence suggests that conservation efforts alone have not been sufficient to offset the scale of biodiversity loss. While protected areas and recovery programs remain important, threatened species listings continue to rise, indicating that the pace of decline still exceeds current responses. If Australia is to protect its unique wildlife, the data points to a need for approaches that go beyond protected area expansion — addressing habitat quality, invasive species management, and land-use decisions at a national scale.
Australian Government. (2021). 2021 State of the Environment — Biodiversity: Cumulative threatened ecological communities listed under the EPBC Act [Data set]. data.gov.au. https://data.gov.au/dataset/2021-soe-bio-026
Australian Government. (2026, February 6). Threatened species and ecological communities [Data set]. data.gov.au. https://data.gov.au/dataset/ae652011-f39e-4c6c-91b8-1dc2d2dfee8f
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water [DCCEEW]. (2024). Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD) 2024 — Terrestrial [Data set]. Australian Government. https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/land/nrs/science/capad
Ward, M., Tulloch, A. I. T., Radford, J. Q., Williams, B. A., Reside, A. E., Mayfield, H. J., Stoeckl, N., Dudgeon, D., Possingham, H. P., & Watson, J. E. M. (2021). A national-scale dataset for threats impacting Australia’s imperilled flora and fauna. Ecology and Evolution, 11(17), 11749–11764. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7920