![]() ![]() Australians are still waiting to see what reforms actually emerge from Graeme Samuel’s sweeping review of the main laws governing biodiversity and environmental protection.Īlignment of policies is vital. Unless all levels of governments enact and enforce effective policies aimed at conserving species and their homes, the situation will worsen. Policies and laws are essentialįunding by itself isn’t enough. Different species respond very differently to fire regimes, for instance. This is questionable, given only around 6% of listed threatened species are slated to receive priority funding, and how much the needs of different species can vary even in the same habitats and ecosystems. The plan assumes recovering priority species may help conserve other threatened species in the same areas and habitats. ![]() It suggests – wrongly – that we have to choose winners and losers, when in fact we could save them all. Picking species to survive betrays our remarkable, diverse and largely unique plants, animals and ecosystems. Combined, we now have more than 2,000 species and ecological communities listed as threatened. Unfortunately, that’s a drop in the ocean. Labor’s plan is focused on arresting the decline of 110 species, and 20 places such as the Australian Alps, Bruny Island and Kakadu and West Arnhem Land. Picking winners means many species will lose You can see the results for yourself: more extinctions and many more threatened species. For decades, Australia’s unique environment and wildlife have been thrown consolation crumbs of funding – even though they are our collective natural heritage, fundamental to human survival, wellbeing and economic prosperity, and a major draw card for tourists and locals. Make no mistake – starving conservation of adequate funding is a choice. If there’s funding for that, there should be funding for wildlife. This is around one-seventh of the money Australian governments spent on fossil fuel subsidies last financial year. How much is enough? Estimates put it at A$1.7 billion per year. “ Measures of last resort“, such as captive breeding, creation of safe havens and translocations, takes more still. Tackling the threats that are pushing them over the edge, from feral cats to land clearing, is expensive. Recovering threatened species takes effort. The grim reality is this plan is nowhere near enough to halt the extinctions. The A$225 million committed is an order of magnitude less than what we need to actually bring these threatened species back from oblivion. This plan is a welcome improvement – especially the focus on First Nations rangers and Indigenous knowledge, clearer targets, better monitoring and the goal of protecting 30% of Australia’s lands and seas within five years.īut the funding is wholly inadequate. If we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’ll keep getting the same results,” Plibersek said.īut is this really a step change? Let’s be clear. “Our current approach has not been working. On Tuesday, federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek announced what this would look like: a new action plan for 110 threatened species. ![]() Senior Research Fellow, Environmental Science, The University of Melbourneĭuring the election campaign, Labor pledged to turn this around. ![]()
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