Western Australia has rich and unique biodiversity, much of which is endemic and recognised as being both nationally and globally significant. Conservation of this biodiversity includes maintaining and restoring variability within and between native species, ecological communities and other biodiversity components, including ecosystems, habitats, genes and ecological processes.

Under the Biodiversity Conservation Act, native species are listed as threatened when they face a high to very high risk of extinction in the wild, and ecological communities are listed as threatened when they face a high to very high risk of collapse.

Conserving and protecting threatened species and threatened ecological communities is a key element of the department’s biodiversity conservation responsibilities.