Developing the Proposed Priority Assessment List of nominations

Nominations are considered by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee when it makes its recommendation to the Minister on annual priorities for the assessment of species, ecological communities and threatening processes.

Although all nominations are welcome, it may not be possible to include all nominations on the Proposed Priority Assessment List (PPAL) in any one year.

In preparing the PPAL, the Committee adopts a strategic approach, taking into account considerations such as:

the conservation theme (if appropriate, noting no theme has been established for the nominations called for between 10 March – 10 May 2007);
the level of threat to the species or ecological community;
the role the species plays in ecosystem function;
the benefit of listing the species, ecological community or key threatening process, for example in terms of legislative protection and threat abatement;
the capacity to effect recovery of the species or ecological community, or to abate the key threatening process;
the degree to which the nomination considers the national extent of the species, ecological community or key threatening process;
the scope and strategic focus of the nominated key threatening process; and,
the availability and relevance of information on which an assessment can be based.

The Committee may consider other matters when establishing the priority of nominations.

In preparing the proposed priority assessment list, the Committee also considers its workload, in particular its capacity to make assessments of nominations while still performing its other functions.

To balance its workload, nominations not included on the PPAL may be considered by the Committee for prioritisation in the subsequent round.