Australia must set strong nature laws, become a world leader in forest protection and climate action, and respect and acknowledge the stewardship of Indigenous Australians to care for Country. Unfortunately, monitoring since 2001 showed an unexpected and rapid decline in the population of woylies across the south-west of Western Australia. Richard Fuller: My own conservation philosophy is that the world becomes a poorer place every time we lose a species from it. Biodiversity 1 and human infectious diseases are intricately linked. Human impact on Australia's biodiversity? In 2016 the Western Australian government passed the Biodiversity Conservation Act, which will eventually fully replace both the Wildlife Act 1950 and the Sandalwood Act 1929. Others have come up with similar figures. Our efforts to protect individual threatened species seem to be going backwards, he says. Get incredible stories of extraordinary wildlife, enlightening discoveries and stunning destinations, delivered to your inbox. I think it would be better to pool our diverse strengthsto envision and trial strategies that could turn it all around long before we reach that precipice, he says. Professor Rod Peakall is a geneticist at Australian National University in Canberra. Retrieved from Gaia Resources: https://www.gaiaresources.com.au/state-dieback/, Service, D. o. Since 1970, there has been on average almost a 70% decline in the populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. In Australia at the end of 2019 and start of 2020, 97,000km2 of forest and surrounding habitats were destroyed by intense fires that are now known to have been made worse by climate change. After protracted negotiations with a pastoral family in far northern New South Wales, the state government has bought more than 430,000ha of iconic Australian outback to be managed as national park. Are we preserving the Amazon? In other words, if you are saying that variety is the best thing, then the hard-nosed developer and the people who want to build a factory where you are protecting wilderness will say, well, you can't have everything, times are too tough, and your argument is that you do want everything. Bruce and Mark share a passion for squirrel gliders that has brought them closer together. SUBTERRANEAN FAUNA CONSERVATION. Many pastoral properties contain significant conservation values, both in the traditionally understood sense of biodiversity values but also [in the] ecosystem services they provide, such as being a source of fresh water, says Doug Humann, CEO of Bush Heritage. Stephen believes that eucalypts and banksias in south-west WA have developed features that encourage birds to pollinate trees further away, thereby increasing genetic diversity of their seed. We really have to aggressively get over our conservatism, because its at the tremendous expense of the survival of species, he says. Between 7 and 10% of all species on Earth are located in Australia, with 85% of Australia's plant species endemic to the continent. There are other good reasons for bringing farmers on board for conservation. Theyve fenced off a creek line and are encouraging native vegetation in order to protect the endangered booroolong frog. They have a right to live here just as much as we do. "We can no longer say . Deforestation, it said, totalled 430 square kilometres last month, five times higher than in January 20 21, and then, quoting a researcher at a Brazilian federal university who said, 'People might be surprised that it wasn't even more. In NSW about 50 per cent of the corridor area is already on government-protected land, especially through the Australian Alps. ABN 18 602 180 512, Office: Lower Ground Floor, 3 Richardson Street, West Perth WA 6005 But thats only 20 per cent of Australia. On a mountain, you can move around the hill a bit. His work, starting in the 1980s, showed that birds tended to move between different trees to feed, rather than between flowers on the same tree. It wasnt always my plan to come back;but it had a lot to do with these conservation projects, the 26-year-old tells me. Robyn Williams: Biodiversity, a problem as shocking as climate change. Introduction of exotic plants and animals, and disease. Our power usage globally has almost tripled in the last 50 years. It helps us fight climate change and adapt to it as well reduce the impact of natural hazards. one of the most diverse and unique floras in the world, with over 210 vascular plant families, and 50-80% of species being unique to the state in the largest of these families. Taking species population as a measure, a significant loss in biodiversity was found in all regions, with encroachment on natural land identified as the most prominent threat to wildlife. They include: While the Act provides new arrangements for Biodiversity Conservation Covenants, these arrangements do not replace or invalidate existing registered Nature Conservation Covenants which will continue unaffected by the Biodiversity Conservation Act. So, in other words, that sort of message seems to say you need to consult the conservationists before you do something and rewilding is an interesting move. The Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 provides for species, subspecies or populations of native animals (fauna) to be listed as Specially Protected, Threatened (Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable) or Extinct in Western Australia. Would you agree with him? As part of its Caring for Country initiative released in 2008 the Federal Government allocated $180 million to buy land, aiming to increase the National Reserve System from 11 per cent (890,000 sq. ONE ALPINE SPECIES the GER may not be able to help is the mountain pygmy possum. Environmentally sustainable farming makes Australian farms more productive and, in fact, more profitable, says Brett Heffernan, a spokesperson for the National Farmers Federation. This possum with the taxonomic name Burramys parvus is the only hibernating marsupial and inhabits the high alpine boulder fields of NSW and Victoria. He describes farmers as frontline environmentalists and argues that many of Australias 136,000 farms are already actively managed for conservation. This, in turn, has triggered an ever-increasing suite of regulatory controls that are considered to result in delays for the approval of projects. My guess is that Burramys will find any number of things to eat because theyve always been in lowland rainforest. Government of Western Australia. Managing farmland for conservation also benefits agricultural productivity. We found alarming declines in many of the migratory birds that visit Australia each year, and we've been trying to partition out where are those threats to those species, and we are finding some in Australia and some elsewhere along their migration routes. Yet the pressures placed on ecosystems from human impact and changing climate are increasing, with more species lost due to extinction. The worst thing we can do is the nonsense of wildernessthere are few places on the planet that havent had humans managing them in some way, Mike says. They used fire as a land management tool long before the arrival of Europeans, and this is thought to have affected vegetation patterns. This South West Biodiversity Hotspot has 8379 native vascular plants (species + subspecies), 47% (3911) of which are endemic (found nowhere else on the planet) 1. Nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) of the Australian landmass is pastoral or agricultural land. The researchers believe that their data can be used to better target conservation efforts. Well, at the University of Queensland there is a special biodiversity lab, and it is headed by Professor Richard Fuller. More than 80% of Australia's flowering plants and land mammals are endemic, as are 88% of our reptiles, 45% of our birds and 92% of our frogs. Red Sea and northern Australia. Biodiversity loss is the result of complex interactions between humans and nature, . Australias South West: A Hotspot for Wildlife nd Plants that Deserve World Heritage Status. Bruce Lynchs farm, 150km to the south-west, is also part of the Slopes to Summit region and offers a great example of how adjoining habitat patches can be combined for a better conservation result. Instead, he argues that the hotspot has the highest incidence on Earth 15 per cent of plants pollinated by birds and mammals, and this might explain why it is so unusual. A genial Aussie with an American accent, Mike gesticulates as he meanders from one fascinating topic to another. They are not going to damage other species in those rainforests because theyve always been there. 200, pp. Biodiversity is the diversity of species, ecosystems and genes on earth. It offers the biggest elevation range in Australia from a few hundred metres above sea level to more than 2200 m. It covers an array of environments from slopes and plains to mountain peaks, has some of our richest communities of species and is home to two-thirds of NSWs threatened plants and animals. You can imagine a migratory species showing up and being unable to refuel on its journey, for example. Loss of species is a major threat to biodiversity in Australia. Basically we are talking about how to sensibly use a finite resource, the landscape, in support of people. Since the arrival of Europeans in Australia, just over 200 years ago, there has been an extraordinary increase in the rate of environmental change and in the loss of biodiversity. [2] Western Australia; Travel Videos; Entertainment. Thank you for reading. Surely thats not a greater glider? exclaims one of our small party. So I think very often we have to intervene and manage from a conservation perspective, not just try to keep things as they were in some historical time, in many ways it's already too late for that and we need to be much more open I think to continuous and innovative management of our environment. The latter phenomenon can be temporary or permanent, depending on whether the environmental degradation that leads to the loss is reversible through . Join us, volunteer and be a part of our journey of discovery! We found that at least 67 million km 2 of Earth's terrestrial vegetation (79% of the area of vegetation remaining) requires retention - via sustainable and appropriate land use and management - to contribute to biodiversity, climate, soil and freshwater objectives under four United Nations Resolutions. Weve got to look at very large landscape scalesso that we dont lose the species that are [still healthy].. However, the current status of information and knowledge about WAs biodiversity is often unclear because its collection and management is fragmented across multiple industry, government and research organisations and there are no established mechanisms for aggregating and synthesising the data. The GER will create opportunities for species to move as climate changes. Its filled with resources that evolutionarily they are suited to eat, says Mike. Ian Pulsford explains that this animal already survives at the top of the regions elevation range, so there simply isnt anywhere for it to go. Theres no doubt in my mind that we can do this if were not fettered by pessimisminnovative approaches are popping up all over Australia.. The short answer is that Invertebrates are animals without a backbone. Institute for Global Change Biology, and School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. The success of Western Shield and previous programs has resulted in the removal of the woylie, tammar wallaby and quenda from Western Australia's threatened species list. 1. Scientists based their findings on the worsening in conservation status of species between 1996 and 2008 on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. Check out the What's On calendar of events, workshops and school holiday programs. Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Next door is the Blue Metal Travelling Stock Reserve, home to a colony of squirrel gliders and a population of an endangered bird the grey-crowned babbler. Two-thirds of Australia has lost its unique birdlife.' He is drawn to unusual projects, which he describes as walking out on the edgewhere a lot of the good science is. The landholders are Wayne Stokes and his partner Marcia Macartney, former public servants who moved here from Canberra almost two decades ago. This is also a property where theres been sightings of swift parrots, a migratory species which breeds during summer in Tasmania and makes a perilous flight across Bass Strait to winter in Victoria and southern NSW. WABSI will contribute to this need by providing more certainty around the decision making processes. Make miniature mechanised minions with teeny tiny tools! Contrast that with Southwest Australia, which harbours an astonishing 7,239 vascular plant species, almost 80% of which are found nowhere else in the world(Alphen, 2016). By subscribing you become an AG Society member, helping us to raise funds for conservation and adventure projects. They identified key pressures on biodiversity loss to be agricultural development and increasing population. Robyn Williams: Yes, but isn't that the kind of blank cheque argument that the hard economic realities will no longer accept? Home Topics Science & Environment Saving Australias biodiversity. There is no question that charismatic biodiversity is a great communicator to the public at large about the beauty and the wonder, but I think it's incredible when you start to tell stories of some of our more obscure species on this planet and reveal those stories and tell them in a compelling way, as E. O. Wilson did, for example, with ants, it could really put those things on the map and could really excite people's interest. Latin America & the Caribbean have sustained a loss of 94% since 1975. Those areas that are most productive for farming are also the most productive for biodiversity.. (Nigel Jackett), How tsunami have impacted Australias east coast and a new approach to limit the threat, Politicians unfairly maligned Robin Batterham, Submerged mats could dissipate energy of tsunami, Autonomous minibus and predicting the behaviour of pedestrians, Harry Butler honoured and how a scientist fell in love with a fossil, A tour of the antimatter factory and John Wheeler remembered. The wetlands in WA support a rich natural heritage of plant and animal life. The resolution requires a robust, rigorous and defensible scientific information base. Human population growth is reducing biodiversity in the following ways: Many ecosystems have been lost during the past 200 years. They've spent thousands of years honing these migration journeys to arrive at the right moment and in the right physiological condition. We hope that we are leading by example in the way that we are managing it.. Richard Fuller: We study migration in fish and butterflies. We also work extensively across a wide range of environments and climates around the world. Thats going to put the temperature up at least one degree[enough] to destroy the habitat. Bringing farmers like Bruce and Mark on board for conservation is a key step in halting biodiversity decline and an important way to link fragmented habitats. We see squirrel gliders the next day, but they have been trapped for an RTA-funded project monitoring highway populations and fitting poles to help the marsupials glide the 70 m needed to cross an otherwise insurmountable road barrier. Well, someone who would have been devastated by this news is Tom Lovejoy, the ecologist who worked for years in the Amazon. So we are certainly facing enormous challenges, but I am also optimistic, I do see strong responses to that, both at governmental level but really driven by a groundswell of change, and I think that connection between people and nature is really fundamental, and enhancing that connection enables us to articulate more clearly and argue more persuasively for change at the highest level. Astronomer Professor Richard de Grijs from Macquarie University explains all the upcoming celestial events visible from Australia this year, and the best datesand times to see them: Make miniature mechanised minions with teeny tiny tools! While there have certainly been extinctions in Australia during the past 40,000 to 50,000 years, scientists are unsure about which, if any, were caused by Indigenous people. We missed [understanding] this here and thats why small mammals have been going extinct in northern Australia. This is due to the States geographical expanse, climatic diversity, areas of relative wilderness, regions with extremely nutrient-impoverished soils, and the fact that significant areas of WA have not been covered by sea or glaciated over geological time. Their hunting practices may have affected population levels of some animals, and the building of fish traps in coastal and inland rivers may also have had environmental effects. A carnivore is an animal that feeds on other animals. Conservation efforts need to be coordinated so together they produce the best chances for the survival of plants and animals which have evolved for specific ecological conditions and have little tolerance when those conditions are altered. Indigenous people have been interacting with Australia's natural environment for tens of thousands of years. Biodiversity is the variety of all living things on Earth, and how they fit together in the web of life, bringing oxygen, water, food and countless other benefits. For millennia, humans have been reshaping ecosystems, directly . Recent reports and studies have . Agriculture destroys biodiversity by converting natural habitats to intensely managed systems and by releasing pollutants, including greenhouses gases. Southwest Western Australia 2.1 During its visit to Western Australia (WA) on 7-8 November 2011, the Committee held a public hearing in Perth, before visiting various sites in the southwest corner of the state. In this section, find out everything you need to know about visiting the Australian Museum, how to get here and the extraordinary exhibitions on display. Richard Fuller: We study lots of things, probably too many. . Western Australia (WA) has a globally unique biodiversity characterised by significant regional endemism, meaning that we have plants and animals that only live in a particular location. Along with UWA colleague Dr Siegy Krauss, Stephen was recently awarded $1 million from the Australian Research Council to test the evolutionary implications of this idea. This enables decision makers to avoid and minimise impacts and, where necessary, develop complementary management strategies, such as biodiversity offsets and restoration to manage residual impacts. This is a last chance decade for both biodiversity and climate: up to one million species are threatened by extinction . Although much of his current work focuses on conservation, his background is in palaeontology and he brings this knowledge into other arenas. Australian Geographic acknowledges the First Nations people of Australia as traditional custodians, and pay our respects to Elders past and present, and their stories and journeys that have lead us to where we are today. I'm also interested in the health and well-being benefits of experiences of nature, and we are showing increasingly that experiences of nature fundamentally underpin human health and well-being. Our group includes Bruces son Mark, and Nigel Jones, a conservation manager with the Nature Conservation Trust of NSW (NCT). It is estimated that about 30 billion species have lived since multicellular life evolved, but only about 0.01% of that number live on Earth today. the ability for the Minister to agree to Biodiversity conservation agreements; the ability for the Director General of Parks and Wildlife to enter into Biodiversity Conservation Covenants with private landholders; and. Robyn Williams: Yes, the ants mean lunch and dinner for half the Australian population, including the furry ones. One of the causes of increased levels of carbon dioxide is the burning of carbon-based fuels such as coal, oil and gas. RESEARCH INTO THE birds and mammals that pollinate banksias and eucalypts in south-west Western Australia is challenging existing theories on the region's enormous biodiversity. Image credit: gadigal yilimung (shield) madeby UncleCharlesChickaMadden. But his plan is to try breeding the animals at ambient temperatures and then release them into a large outdoor enclosure at Secret Creek Sanctuary in Lithgow, NSW. The states south-west, in particular, has some of the richest diversity of plants and animals on earth. Farms are often overlooked for biodiversity priority, but its these areas that birds are coming to because theres a more reliable nectar source herea lot of the threatened species live in these areas., Yellow-box grassy woodland, a threatened habitat type found on the Lynchs farm, has been extensively cleared in the south-east because it occurs on fertile soils. The research, published in the journal Science, found that human land use has driven down the population of many species to a dangerous extent across vast swathes of the planet. Governments are failing us Join us in calling for change JOIN THE MOVEMENT TODAY Image copyright JJ Harrison, Wikicommons, Yellow Donkey Orchids, Lower Swamp (Frog Swamp) North Lake Reserve 2014. The region is about the size of England, which has about 1,500 species of vascular plants (all plants except ferns and mosses), 47 of them found nowhere else. Robyn Williams: Apart from noisy miners, what sort of research are you doing at your lab? The main factor in the loss of biodiversity is the increased rate of population growth. A variety of grants are already available as incentives from public and private bodies. "Modest recovery of biodiversity in a western European country: The Living Planet Index for the Netherlands", Biological Conservation, Vol. Developed by a partnership of the UK Business & Biodiversity Forum, IEMA, RSPB, WSP, the Aldersgate Group and . Connectivity conservation aims to give them the opportunity to roam more widely across landscapes, by persuading landholders to provide protected links between existing parks and reserves. ' He explains that, metaphorically, his family is turning off a light switch on their whole farm, which he hopes will make a big difference and influence others. Bold, new interventionist ideas are needed to save Australias biodiversity. All of these groups need to be around the table because they all have something important to contribute. Land-use change for urbanisation, agricultural, minerals and industrial development. In Riversleigh [fossil fields in Queensland], spanning between 24 million and 12 million years ago, Burramys is found all through lowland rainforests in rocky limestone habitat., Mike is convinced the pygmy possum tracked rainforest up the mountain in a previous bout of climate change and became trapped up there in the boulder fields when the rainforests disappeared. The total number of species of birds on earth is estimated to be around 10,000! Such connections are a major focus of some new conservation approaches. The mountains offer a huge diversity of refuges. 14 million ha in the 280-600 mm rainfall zone of south-western Australia (Fig. Further down the line, if the breeding program is successful, the idea is to release them into lowland rainforests. Discover what they reveal about the history of Earth and our solar system and what makes them so essential to our existence. The excitement doesnt last long, though; a few camera flashes reveal the eyes belong to a common ringtail possum. L-R: Sonya Sawtell-Rickson, CIO, Hesta; Adrian Ward, CEO, Accounting for Nature; Andrew Saunders, head of natural climate solutions, QIC. Australia is the only western country to have large areas of rainforest intact. A honeyeater feeds from a eucalypt endemic to south-west Western Australia. Donate. Despite all we know, biodiversity loss is at an all-time high On The Science Show with Robyn Williams Students learn about food webs at school. 2.2 Southwest WA is one of Australia's 15 national biodiversity 'hotspots' and the only biodiversity hotspot located in . Two-thirds. A staggering amount when compared to England, where the land mass is proportionate to the South West but there are only 1500 native vascular plants species and a mere 3% are endemi 2 . the ability for the Minister to make regulations for certain matters identified in the Act. Species may find they have no escape routes as temperatures rise, pushing them out of their comfort zones. Biodiversity should be at the top of the global agenda alongside climate, said Anne Larigauderie, IPBES executive secretary, at a 6 May press conference in Paris, France. Richard Fuller: I think there's no question that we've messed up almost every one of the Earth's planetary systems that govern the way nature works, and that means that intervention by us is often needed to keep things on an even keel or to return them to some kind of functional state. In the past 20 years extinctions have also become common on continents. The prerequisites will be to establish an effective captive-breeding program [at cold temperatures] for the Kosciuszko population. Robyn Williams: The late Tom Lovejoy, one of those I mentioned before in The Science Show we should remember, whose work was so significant, at the same level maybe as Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring was published 60 years ago. salinization and waterlogging of ecosystems; over-grazing of native vegetation by domestic animals, loss of soils and altered hydrology in the pastoral rangelands; over-exploitation of native plants and animals; and, the ability for the Minister to approve Biodiversity management programmes;. In coming years, Bruce and Mark are likely to fare much better than farmers who have not been making these changes Well still have to adapt to climate change to make a living, Mark says. Richard Fuller: We put citronella burners outside, how about that, as some kind of compromise. Mike agrees 1.5 million sq. Did megafauna, such as Procoptodon (the giant short-faced kangaroo) or Diprotodon (the giant wombat-like marsupial), that used to roam Australia, become extinct because of climate change or because of hunting? This has led to loss and fragmentation of habitats, with a range of biological effects, which include the slow dismantling of ecological communities and species habitat resulting in eventual species extinctions and loss of biodiversity richness. Hook Ups & Break ups; . Southwest Australia is recognised as one of the worlds 35 recognised biodiversity hotspots. Bringing farmers like Bruce and Mark on board for conservation is a key step in halting biodiversity decline and an important way to link fragmented habitats. But I think we have to be careful with some of those more utilitarian arguments for different aspects of nature. This is Lovejoy on The Science Show some years ago: Tom Lovejoy: After a great deal of thinking about it, it seems to us that there is no intelligent way to choose between one species and another, and in fact it's not an intelligent choice to make. Clearly, too many of our existing management practices for endangered species arent working. Source: Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (Department of Parks and Wildlife Service), The south-west of the State has experienced significant impacts to biodiversity values from broad-scale land clearing for agriculture (especially in the 1920s to 1980s), expansion of urban areas, and development of infrastructure and use of natural resources. Australian Geographic acknowledges the First Nations people of Australia as traditional custodians, and pay our respects to Elders past and present, and their stories and journeys that have lead us to where we are today. 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