[4] Upon receiving a nomination, the Scientific Advisory Committee decides whether the species meet the legislative guidelines and must publish an initial decision within 12 months.

[2] The Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) is a body provided for by the TSP Act, whose function is to make recommendations to the Minister and Secretary of Primary Industries and Water on the listing and delisting of species.

[2] The assessment guidelines for the TSP Act were devised with several major taxonomic groups in mind: vertebrate and invertebrate fauna, vascular and non-vascular flora, fungi and marine species.

"[2] A taxon of native flora or fauna which is below the level of sub-species and which is narrowly defined owing to its taxonomic position, environmental conditions or geography may be listed only if, in addition to the requirements of this section, there is a special need to conserve it in Tasmania.

"[2] These levels of threat, along with the assessment processes of the TSP Act are largely structured around the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List framework.

[7] It aims to provide an efficient mechanism for the objective classification of taxa to a threat level based upon certain thresholds of population decline.

[7] This objective process is enabled by removing expert opinion from the final classification of a species, which is done using data analysis to determine extinction risk.

[8] The IUCN framework instead uses expert knowledge to inform the process of mapping, listing and conservation, but aims to remove any subjective opinion from the final decision.

However, the movement of taxa, particularly fauna, across borders and between regions of different authority, can be a substantial challenge in accurately listing population size, especially when endemic and introduced species and their breeding and non-breeding members are considered.

[7] Since Tasmania is an island, with many endemic species of flora and fauna, it is in an advantageous position to adopt the IUCN Red List Framework.

[10] This is due to many factors, however, the greatest contributors are invasive species, variations and increases in the number and severity of bushfires and the loss of at least 33% of Australia's vegetation and native habitat.

[11] Some significant challenges are faced in accurately mapping habitats and assessing a species level of threat due to their inhabited environment, this occurs both in the marine[12] and terrestrial[13][14] settings.

[13] Similarly to the marine environment, the obscure and hidden nature of non-vascular flora makes them very difficult to sample and obtain accurate population information.

[15] The challenge of using assessments with such a focused nature is that with the limited resources for conservation of these taxa in Tasmania, this approach to sampling struggles to efficiently gather enough information for landowners to make management decisions.