Many agencies withhold or generalise the exact location of Sensitive or Restricted Access Species. These are species where a conservation agency or data custodian have decided that the exact location of records cannot be made public. This may be for a variety of reasons including sensitivity to disturbance and exploitation, the risk of causing harm to life and property, or economic sensitivity. There is a National Framework on Restricted Access Species Data which talks about the different types of species data that are affected, how this data is treated and how it may be requested.

All states and territories in Australia maintain lists of Sensitive or Restricted Access species. A species does not need to appear on a conservation list or even be native to be considered a sensitive species, however, there is overlap. Several other organisations also maintain lists of sensitive species, including Birdlife Australia, eBird and FrogID. 
 

Sensitive or Restricted Access species lists at the ALA

The ALA generalises data based on State and Territory Sensitive and Restricted Access Species lists as well as data from BirdLife Australia based on their sensitive species list. 

We run data sensitivity checks as part of the data upload process. Depending on the nature of the sensitivity, records are either: 

1. Withheld (e.g. Wollemi Pine) 
2. Geographic coordinates and sightings are generalised to 10km
3. Geographic coordinates and sightings are generalised to 1km

You can find the list of species that are generalised in the ALA on our sensitive species lists.

The ALA plots observation records using decimal latitude and longitude, eg 34.874 degrees south and 124.234 degrees east. Based on advice from agencies or data custodians, the ALA generalises data by 1km or 10km by removing decimals from the latitude and longitude. If a point was generalised to 10km in the example above, the latitude and longitude would become 34.8 degrees south and 124.2 degrees east.

Some records are simply withheld. The ALA generally does not hold these records.

The Restricted Access Species Data Service provides a convenient mechanism for approved users to request these data from data custodians for agreed uses such as research and government conservation assessment.

Displaying sensitive species information

When looking at an occurrence record of a sensitive species, you will be informed that the record has been modified and information is being withheld. Figure 2 shows the information displayed for a sensitive species. This text will vary depending on the level of sensitivity as outlined above. In this example, information from certain fields are listed as being withheld, such as locality, locationRemarks, and habitat, and the coordinates are rounded to 0.1 degrees.

Figure 2. Sensitive species information withheld for Prasophyllum petilum (Tarengo Leek Orchid).

FAQs

How do I make the location of my sighting non-specific?

The ALA will process any sensitive records according to the rules set by the state and territory governments. If you have records you believe are sensitive but do not appear on the sensitive species lists for the relevant state or territory you can generalise them prior to submission by: 

1. Reducing the accuracy of location information (coordinates and locality description) 
2. Changing the precision of the taxonomic information (e.g. providing species instead of subspecies or genus instead of species).  

If the records are generalised prior to submission, it is important to indicate this in the records using the “data generalisations” field so that users of the data know that more accurate information is available if needed.

The ALA and iNaturalist work together to generalise data added to iNaturalist based on exactly the same ruleset.

Also, remember that by generalising records yourself you make the records far less useful for research or conservation assessment. We strongly recommend you allow records to be generalised by the ALA based on state or territory lists. This way the data can be passed to researchers or conservation assessments in a correct format.