Are Black Cockatoos really protected?
Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 1:35 
“The current controls aren’t working and are pushing native wildlife closer to the brink – we need a more comprehensive approach.” —David Wake. Image: iStock ENVIRONMENTAL experts say a population shift of WA’s iconic Carnaby's Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) will put more pressure on habitats that are rapidly being lost to development without effective laws to protect them.
Murdoch University Dean of Environmental Science and former WA Conservation Commission chairman John Bailey says the state’s Wildlife Protection Act, which has not been updated in more than 60 years, is “woefully inadequate” for dealing with current threats to endangered species.
He says the lack of comprehensive statewide biodiversity legislation means conservation and planning laws are not well integrated and look at each case individually instead of a wider scale.
This leaves ever-shrinking conservation areas scattered across Perth that make it difficult for the cockatoo to get find food because of the distances involved.
WA Museum’s Ron Johnstone says the situation for black cockatoos is likely to become more precarious as they shift their breeding grounds from the Wheatbelt to around Perth.
In his report to the WA Planning Department, Mr Johnstone said the breeding location shift had been going on since the WWII following widespread land clearing, and accelerated in the past 10–30 years due to climate change and competition from galahs and feral bees.
He says this has put so much pressure on food sources that cockatoos are now foraging in backyards – something unheard of 10 years ago.
“The food sources have dwindled so much they’re relying on other things,” Mr Johnstone says.
Associate Professor Bailey says even with environmental victories, legislation has no means of protecting habitats from future development.
“Once a development decision is made there’s no need to revisit it, but with conservation decisions, they always need to be revisited because new development proposals come up,” he says.
“We need a mechanism for locking in conservation decisions.”
David Wake, from the Urban Bush Council, says the WA Government has a “developmental bias” and often overrules assessments by the Environmental Protection Authority that recommend conservation over development proposals.
“The current controls aren’t working and are pushing native wildlife closer to the brink – we need a more comprehensive approach,” David Wake says.
“As the black cockatoo is an iconic West Australian bird it is [at least] giving us some leverage.”
Professor Bailey says the government should consider paying private landowners to setup conservation zones on important habitats to encourage cockatoo breeding.
He says Victoria and New South Wales were good examples of protection systems WA could emulate.