Contribution of privately protected areas to the conservation of a threatened woodland bird community

Abstract Legally protecting areas of habitat is a common action for the conservation of threatened species and communities. However, protection on public land alone is inadequate to conserve many species and ecosystems. The inclusion of privately protected areas within the protected area network provides one mechanism to address this shortfall. A key question is how effective these privately protected areas are at conserving biodiversity, which is often not examined through on‐ground studies. This research aims to determine if privately protected areas are beneficial for the declining temperate woodland bird community in Australia. We established a treatment‐control study design comprised of properties with a legally binding conservation covenant and nearby properties with woodland areas used for grazing (either cattle or sheep) that did not have a covenant that provided business‐as‐usual controls for comparison. We found a higher community condition and species richness and abundance for all terrestrial bird species, woodland bird species, and species characteristic of intact bird communities in the protected sites compared to unprotected sites. However, we did not detect higher richness and abundance of threatened species between protected and unprotected sites. While these findings demonstrate the ecological value of privately protected areas for many woodland bird species, further investigation is required to determine if establishment and management of covenants caused these increases, or if they were due to covenants being placed on sites with existing high biodiversity value. In any case, we emphasize the critical role private protected areas have for conserving species, beyond just preventing habitat loss.