Guest Speaker: Greg Keighery – Threatened Ecological Communities of Western Australia – State and Federal

Greg retired as a Senior Principal Research Scientist in the Survey program of the Department of Biodiversity Conservations and Attractions. He undertook large scale biological surveys throughout Western Australia to help establish conservation reserves. Greg as a DBCA research associate has maintained an interest in the taxonomy of native plants, weeds and plant surveys. Currently he chairs the State Threatened Ecological Communities Scientific Advisory Committee. Most recently with several others he published a review of the pollination of south Western Australian plants.

· In 2023, 69 communities weregazetted as legally threatened under the Biodiversity Conservation Act. This is a major step forward for the State since this was first proposed over 20 years ago.

· The Commonwealth under the EPBC act also has declared a number of threatened communities

· The talk will look at what can be a threatened community in Western Australia, what is the pathway and process to legal protection in WA and where the State and Commonwealth agree and differ in threatened communities.