NEWS: February 2026
Australia’s Record Heat Exposes a Conservation System Under Strain
Australia has recorded another year of exceptional heat, intensifying pressure on ecosystems already struggling to protect wildlife. Scientists say the country’s ongoing biodiversity losses, including the highest rate of small mammal extinctions in the world, reflect not only climate stress but deep weaknesses in how land has been managed since colonisation.
Australia has lost more native mammal species since European settlement than any other country, with many declines continuing inside national parks and conservation reserves. Researchers say rising temperatures, longer fire seasons, and altered rainfall patterns are now amplifying ecological vulnerabilities that were created decades earlier.
Heat as a Stress Test
Extreme heat does not act in isolation. Ecologists note that warming interacts with fire, habitat structure, and predation to accelerate species loss, particularly among small to medium-sized mammals such as bandicoots, bettongs, and native rodents. These species evolved in landscapes actively managed by humans. When temperature extremes hit simplified or overgrown systems, animals lose refuge, and predators gain the advantage.
Australia’s fire-shaped ecosystems historically experienced frequent, low-intensity burns that maintained patchy vegetation and shelter. The removal of those regimes has left many landscapes prone to large, intense fires that burn across vast areas, eliminating cover and food sources.
Conservation investment in Australia has expanded significantly over recent decades, including the growth of protected areas and species recovery programs. Yet mammal declines have continued, prompting questions about whether the existing model is fit for a hotter future.
In many reserves, land managers now face a convergence of threats: accumulated fuel loads, invasive predators, and climate-driven fire behaviour that overwhelms suppression efforts. Scientists say this has exposed limits in conservation strategies that focus on protecting places rather than maintaining ecological processes.
A grass tree, or Xanthorrhoea, resprouts after fire in an Australian woodland. Evolved to survive frequent, low-intensity burns, these ancient plants depend on fire to flower and regenerate. When fire regimes shift from cool and patchy to hot and widespread, even fire-adapted species like this reveal how finely balanced Australia’s ecosystems have always been.
Indigenous Knowledge Re-enters the Frame
As temperatures rise, attention is increasingly turning to Indigenous land stewardship practices, particularly cultural fire management. In parts of northern and central Australia, Indigenous fire practitioners are working with agencies to reintroduce frequent, low-intensity burns designed to reduce fuel, protect habitat mosaics, and limit extreme fire behaviour.
Studies following recent fire seasons have found that areas under long-term Indigenous management often burn less severely. Despite this, Indigenous practitioners say their involvement is often project-based rather than embedded in governance.
Government agencies acknowledge growing interest in Indigenous-led approaches but say scaling them nationally presents legal and institutional challenges.
A System Under Pressure
With climate extremes becoming the norm rather than the exception, conservation scientists warn that existing approaches may struggle to prevent further losses unless land management systems adapt.
“Heat is exposing what was already fragile,” said Professor John Woinarski, a former Threatened Species Commissioner adviser. “If Australia does not change how it manages fire and habitat at scale, extinction risk will continue to rise.”
As another fire season approaches, Australia faces a question that is no longer theoretical: whether its conservation system can evolve fast enough to protect wildlife in a warming continent.
Why Indigenous Land Stewardship Matters for Wildlife Survival
Indigenous Australians managed the continent’s landscapes for tens of thousands of years using practices tailored to local climate, soils, and species. Central to this was cultural burning, the use of small, carefully timed fires to shape vegetation and reduce fuel.
These practices created diverse habitat mosaics that supported small mammals by providing shelter, food, and escape from predators. When Indigenous land stewardship was disrupted during colonisation, fire regimes changed. Fuel accumulated, fires became larger and hotter, and ground-dwelling species lost refuge.
Modern science increasingly recognises that frequent, low-intensity fire can reduce extinction risk in fire-adapted ecosystems. Indigenous knowledge systems are not static traditions. They are adaptive frameworks that evolved in response to environmental change.
In a hotter Australia, conservation experts argue that integrating Indigenous governance with modern ecological science is not a cultural gesture. It is a practical response to escalating ecological risk.
