Significant changes to South Australia's natural ecosystems are threatening many native species and communities. Only about 30 percent of native vegetation remains in the agricultural zone.

The department's scientists and their project partners are investigating the best ways to restore large areas of habitat across the landscape, so that plants and animals have the best chance to survive and adapt to environmental change, including climate change. Restoration efforts can also allow for the reintroduction of locally extinct species.

Historical data and images, current ecological data, as well as geomorphological and climate data, provide a basis for the restoration of the state's landscapes.

Information obtained from the department's projects is used to plan for conservation and restoration by providing spatially explicit information that helps determine conservation aims and priorities. These analyses continue to be developed and have the potential to assist a range of conservation activities, from on-ground restoration work through to statewide policy development.

South Australia's NatureLinks program is also working towards the conservation of the state's plants and animals by managing, revegetating and restoring large areas of habitat with the longer term goal of re-connecting fragmented habitats.

Find out more about the department's work in landscape restoration: