Format: ORAL

Tom Le Breton1, Mark Ooi1, Sylvia Hay1, Tony Auld1

1 Centre for Ecosystem Science, University of New South Wales, Australia

The combined pressures of global climate change and anthropogenic disturbance of the natural world are leading to a rapid rise in the number of species at risk of extinction. For many taxa, these numbers are rising faster than it is currently possible to keep track of leading to an increased need to utilise rapid assessments to accelerate extinction risk assessments and ensure plant species receive timely conservation actions.The 2019-2020 Black Summer fires had extensive impacts on native flora necessitating a prioritisation process to identify the species most in need of rapid and full extinction risk assessments. We used a tiered approach to identify priority species for full extinction risk assessments and compared how well rapid assessments with minimal information predicted extinction risk after full assessment. Some 400 species received rapid assessments and 135 received full assessments. The rapid assessments accurately predicted the final threat status of 59% of species. Higher threat statuses like Critically Endangered and Endangered where more accurately predicted than Vulnerable and Not Threatened. Of the 135 species that recieved full assessments 85% were found to be at greater risk of extinction following the fires, Our results highlight the value of rapid assessments in response to these landmark disasters with widespread impacts as well as for accelerating comprehensive listings of under assessed flora.