National Light Pollution Guidelines for Wildlife

About this document

The guidelines raise awareness of the impacts of artificial light on wildlife. They can help you protect Australia’s threatened wildlife.

The guidelines include:

• a framework for how to assess and manage the light pollution impacts on protected wildlife
• detailed guidance for how to manage artificial light
• specific advice on how to protect marine turtles, seabirds and migratory shorebirds.

In 2023, the guidelines were updated and now also include specific advice on how to protect bats, terrestrial mammals and ecological communities.

How to use

You can help protect Australia’s wildlife from the stresses and impacts of light pollution.

To help, you can put in place our recommended approaches.

How they were developed

We worked with the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. We developed these guidelines under the:

• National Environmental Science Program
• North West Shelf Flatback Conservation Program.

Endorsement

The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals endorsed these guidelines in February 2020. This was during their 13th Conference of Parties.

Further information

• Let’s switch off light pollution together!
• Light pollution
• Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals