Elsewhere in the world governments have achieved extraordinary environmental outcomes from reintroducing big predators.

Breckwoldt cites the grey wolf returning to Yosemite National Park in the United States and controlling elk which had eaten all the riverine vegetation. Vegetation regenerated and eventually beavers returned.

He said Europeans had removed the eastern grey kangaroos' predators, dingoes, and interrupted Aboriginal management of the land, with equal efficiency.

''The disturbing thing is so much effort goes into looking after a species that has benefited from European occupation,'' he said.

''Yet we ignore species which have been detrimentally impacted by European occupation.

''The perception of rarity regarding the red and grey kangaroo totally overwhelms the debate about a whole range of other macropods: the bridled nail-tailed wallaby, the yellow-footed rock wallaby, brush tailed rock wallaby.

''[These] macropods [are] rapidly heading towards extinction while there is an obsession on species that have benefited from European occupation.''

The author of Wildlife in the Home Paddock and A Very Elegant Animal: the Dingo, Breckwoldt will join other environmental professionals at the ANU on April 9 to share their knowledge on environmental impacts of kangaroos.

The forum convener, the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand, will raise awareness on how impacts can be avoided or reduced and offset by managing kangaroos and landscapes across the territory.

Breckwoldt said sheep farmers could not tolerate dingoes for good reason, but many cattle farmers had made a rational decision to leave dingoes alone to keep down emus and kangaroos to a point before controlling them.

He said society's huge effort controlling wild dogs was warranted.

''If we didn't they would be walking down Northbourne Avenue in packs. The remedies in urban areas are not simple,'' he said.

Allocating responsibility for wild dogs in fringe areas was complicated, with the national parks, bordering farms and land managers all having roles.

Richard Sharp, an organiser and speaker at next month's forum, said presenters, who included policy makers and land managers, would be looking at policies to protect plants and animals - their link to specific species - and would not get into the debate on kangaroo culling.

Other speakers will include Brett Howland, of the Fenner School of Environment and Society, who will talk about managing kangaroos, grazing pressure for the conservation of reptiles and birds in grasslands and grassy woodlands, and Sue McIntyre from the CSIRO ecosystem sciences, who will speak on unregulated grazing by kangaroos at Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve.