Biological diversity

Protect, repair and manage the environment

Metric

Proportion of decline in Australia’s threatened and near threatened species from the Threatened Species Index

Why this matters

Biodiversity — the variety and variability of living things including animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms like bacteria — is central to the health of natural ecosystems. A loss of biodiversity threatens the capacity of our environment to sustain and provide clean air, water, medicines and is contributing to the emergence and transmission of disease.

Progress

The Australian Threatened Species Index shows that in the period from 1985 to 2020:

the abundance of threatened and near-threatened species declined by approximately 60%
plant species declined in abundance by about 70%
bird species declined in abundance by about 60%
mammal species declined in abundance by about 50%.

Between 2019 and 2020, the average decline in abundance of threatened and near-threatened species was:

5% across all species
7% for plants (across 129 species)
3% for birds (across 70 species)
11% for mammals (across 79 species).

Index of relative abundance of Australia's threatened and near-threatened species (a)
	Birds	Mammals	Plants	All
1985	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
1986	0.98	1.28	0.96	1.07
1987	1.02	1.43	0.91	1.11
1988	1.02	1.31	0.87	1.07
1989	1.03	1.20	0.84	1.03
1990	1.00	1.25	0.82	1.02
1991	0.97	1.20	0.83	1.00
1992	0.97	1.17	0.87	1.01
1993	0.94	1.16	0.89	1.00
1994	0.95	1.14	0.94	1.02
1995	0.94	1.09	0.99	1.03
1996	0.92	0.96	0.93	0.96
1997	0.91	1.06	0.95	1.00
1998	0.91	1.12	0.99	1.03
1999	0.88	1.06	0.95	0.99
2000	0.84	0.94	0.97	0.95
2001	0.81	0.82	0.87	0.86
2002	0.74	0.79	0.81	0.81
2003	0.72	0.71	0.83	0.78
2004	0.69	0.72	0.78	0.76
2005	0.69	0.68	0.76	0.74
2006	0.63	0.72	0.67	0.70
2007	0.62	0.78	0.63	0.69
2008	0.61	0.72	0.59	0.65
2009	0.61	0.69	0.57	0.63
2010	0.59	0.71	0.54	0.62
2011	0.57	0.68	0.50	0.58
2012	0.55	0.68	0.46	0.56
2013	0.51	0.66	0.45	0.54
2014	0.47	0.61	0.41	0.49
2015	0.46	0.65	0.39	0.49
2016	0.47	0.64	0.36	0.47
2017	0.44	0.62	0.30	0.43
2018	0.44	0.56	0.31	0.42
2019	0.40	0.54	0.30	0.40
2020	0.39	0.48	0.28	0.38

Index of relative abundance of Australia's threatened and near-threatened species (a)

["","Birds","Mammals","Plants","All"]

[["1985","1986","1987","1988","1989","1990","1991","1992","1993","1994","1995","1996","1997","1998","1999","2000","2001","2002","2003","2004","2005","2006","2007","2008","2009","2010","2011","2012","2013","2014","2015","2016","2017","2018","2019","2020"],[[1],[0.98351793899999995],[1.023822123],[1.0235155440000001],[1.0293409490000001],[1.003004156],[0.97486108500000002],[0.97087805800000004],[0.93791998200000004],[0.94638028900000004],[0.93851122899999995],[0.92135403299999996],[0.90508096100000002],[0.90892324999999996],[0.876615484],[0.83743263700000004],[0.80574425999999999],[0.74460973100000005],[0.71760305700000004],[0.69418274700000004],[0.68595073900000003],[0.63357630399999998],[0.62491353100000002],[0.61319580699999998],[0.60551830200000001],[0.58580575499999998],[0.56985955499999996],[0.54642554499999996],[0.51446253500000005],[0.472656101],[0.46243400899999998],[0.47112485700000001],[0.43947786900000002],[0.436014766],[0.396609343],[0.39479091900000002]],[[1],[1.2780680310000001],[1.425863646],[1.312806795],[1.203268295],[1.2452315380000001],[1.195162885],[1.17220784],[1.1560678849999999],[1.1380160589999999],[1.0897594639999999],[0.95568768199999998],[1.0578241900000001],[1.119646176],[1.0599364689999999],[0.94283985199999998],[0.82052478600000001],[0.790244893],[0.71145152],[0.71844695999999997],[0.68239771299999996],[0.71934933199999995],[0.77624580899999995],[0.71532180400000001],[0.69236637700000003],[0.70564951499999995],[0.68220770900000005],[0.68207297600000005],[0.65647127000000005],[0.61063071000000002],[0.64682266300000002],[0.63516973200000004],[0.61641858199999999],[0.56160194100000005],[0.54005606299999998],[0.479789354]],[[1],[0.96227232399999996],[0.91415194499999997],[0.87191698299999998],[0.84483807099999997],[0.81860014299999995],[0.827376098],[0.86796840399999997],[0.89382127],[0.93870662400000004],[0.99207779299999999],[0.925652111],[0.94924982999999996],[0.98634473499999997],[0.95044596000000003],[0.97233790099999995],[0.87077116300000001],[0.81147620899999995],[0.83095239399999998],[0.77929644600000003],[0.756736933],[0.67472090399999995],[0.62967470400000003],[0.59428780299999995],[0.56837495999999998],[0.54397949199999995],[0.49528443799999999],[0.45639879100000003],[0.45109683],[0.40607748799999999],[0.38508585200000001],[0.35857917700000003],[0.30315877800000002],[0.30864307899999999],[0.30314830799999998],[0.27864639499999999]],[[1],[1.0700339210000001],[1.111753802],[1.067156655],[1.0287713169999999],[1.023261379],[1.0016919529999999],[1.007771465],[1.0032412930000001],[1.0234653680000001],[1.034687589],[0.96273774700000003],[0.99856531000000004],[1.0318972179999999],[0.98937197399999999],[0.94785416],[0.86450010499999996],[0.81117367100000004],[0.78369684299999998],[0.75881206700000003],[0.73612887000000005],[0.69537531100000005],[0.68679083500000004],[0.65231511900000005],[0.63259159200000004],[0.61766480300000004],[0.58403893399999995],[0.55802617099999996],[0.53953271599999997],[0.493402432],[0.48843478000000001],[0.47422313500000002],[0.42898819500000002],[0.42092948200000002],[0.39955950499999998],[0.38008769199999998]]]

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The index does not include all threatened species, and is continually being expanded to increase the species included.

Data Source

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), the Australian Threatened Specie…