A 10-year plan to tackle the rapid extinction rate of Australian animals has been launched, with scientists from across the country collaborating on ways to deal with the biodiversity loss. Conservation organisation Bush Heritage Australia is spearheading the initiative, that will involve 50 scientists from 15 universities working on 55 projects to find solutions to the alarming decline of native Australian animals. Australia has the worst rate of mammal extinctions in the world, losing 29 species over the past 200 years, with a further 56, or one in five remaining species, at risk of being wiped out. This crisis also extends beyond mammals, with dozens of bird, plant, fish, reptile and amphibian species listed as critically endangered by the federal government. Habitat loss, hunting and changes in fire regimes have contributed to the decline, with invasive species considered a primary ongoing threat. It is estimated that feral cats have directly contributed to the extinction of around 20 species, including the lesser bilby, pig-footed bandicoot and the desert bettong. The new plan will involve scientists using the 36 Bush Heritage conservation reserves, which cover around 3.5m hectares, to work together on new ways to halt this decline. Research will be focused on six broad areas – invasive species, fire ecology, landscape connectivity so species can move about, restoring habitat, understanding habitat refuges and direct threatened species management. Bush Heritage Australia said it hoped to have 120 programs in place by 2025, with the outcomes of research applied more widely, beyond its own reserves. “We’ll have a range of programs, from long-term research to short-term actions, that build upon each other,” said Dr Jim Radford, science and research manager at Bush Heritage Australia. “I hope we’ll be able to point to a number of programs where research has enabled an increase in abundance and diversity of species. “We won’t want to see these species just in zoos or a few offshore islands. We aren’t going to get our extinct species back but we want to manage landscapes a lot better and allow remnant populations to hang on, prosper and increase.” Radford said native mammals, such as bilbies, bettongs, bandicoots and gliders, are in an “absolutely dire” situation. “They are facing a barrage of threats, in many cases persisting in a fraction of the habitat once available to them,” he said. “Before, if a fire came through, they could move to another area and then move back, but now if there’s fire, a disease or an invasion by feral cats or foxes, they can be wiped out. “I suspect there are a few animals that are perhaps not recoverable, but I don’t think we should stop trying. We may lose a couple more, but I hope we can point to many more success stories where there’s been a recovery.” Bush Heritage Australia is already undertaking a number of animal reintroductions, such as the red-tailed phascogale into parts of Western Australia and the striped legless lizard at Scottsdale, a reserve about 75km south of Canberra. Funding for the plan will be provided by Bush Heritage Australia as well as outside sources. Radford would not put a figure on how much money was needed. Last year, Greg Hunt, the federal environment minister, pledged to end the loss of native mammal species by 2020, adding: “I don’t want the extinction of species such as the numbat, the quokka, the bilby, on our collective consciences.” A national threatened species commissioner has been appointed to coordinate recovery work, but there has been criticism from some conservationists over a lack of funding and the absence of a national or even state-based plan to wipe out large numbers of feral cats.