Tag Archives: Threatened Species Commissioner Gregory Andrews

Australia to launch new strategy to save endangered native animals

A strategy to save 20 declining native mammals such as the numbat, the greater bilby and the eastern barred bandicoot by 2020 will be launched in Melbourne this week. Threatened species commissioner Gregory Andrews said this plan would help address Australia’s unenviable record of having lost 29 native species since 1788.

The extinction of species in recent history has eclipsed the rate that the Earth would naturally lose species, and this gap is growing. Last week, another eight species were added to Australia’s list of threatened species, adding to a growing list of more than 1,800 Australian species and ecological communities at risk of extinction. Extinction is not inevitable. Extinction is a choice.

Conservationists examined the Federal Government’s current strategy to protect 120 of the most endangered animals in Australia and found for nearly 70 per cent of the animals, habitat loss from practices such as mining or logging was the biggest threat.

Numbat

(image: “Numbat” by Martin Pot (Martybugs at en.wikipedia). Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

The conservationists will take their concerns to the first national summit on threatened species next week. It is being hosted by Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt, with the aim of bringing attention to species in danger and looking at how best to protect plants and animals.

Successive Australian governments have failed to protect the habitat of the country’s most endangered creatures. A report, compiled by the Australian Conservation Foundation, BirdLife Australia and Environmental Justice Australia, states that recovery plans consistently avoid any measures to limit habitat loss and that successive governments have “entrenched the process of extinction”.

Around half of all of Australia’s forests have either been cut down or severely disturbed since European arrival on the continent, meaning the habitat of a vast array of species has become fragmented or vanished.

Greater_Bilby

(image: Greater Bilby -David Fleay Wildlife Park, Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, South Queensland)

 

Not without irony, just last Wednesday, federal environment minister Greg Hunt approved the Watermark Coal Mine in New South Wales. China’s thirst for coal will come at a cost! The Shenhua mine will destroy 771 hectares of some of eastern Australia’s most threatened ecosystems. These endangered box and gum woodlands are home to rare and rapidly-declining species, such as the colourful swift parrot, regent honeyeater and koalas.

Clearfell_Wet_Eucalypt_forest_in_Maydena_South-west_Tasmania

(image: Clearfell Wet Eucalypt forest in Maydena South-west Tasmania 2013)

That approval, given under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, is not the final step. Shenhua still needs a mining license from New South Wales, and three further approvals on water management and rehabilitation from the federal government.

Policy coordinator for the Australian Conservation Foundation said: “Threatened species protection isn’t just about feral cats. It’s about a diverse range of pressures and the biggest threat is habitat clearance. We have a choice – we either accept that we put developments in less environmentally sensitive areas or we will have species go extinct.”

It has been estimated that a ten-year investment of $290 million would reverse the declines of our threatened wallabies, bettongs and other macropods. We spend billions of dollars for submarines that will only last a few decades, but we cannot afford a few hundred million to save our precious wildlife?

It’s a tremendous challenge, against the tide of urbanization, mining, logging industries. Australia, the most biologically diverse nation on the planet, is paying a high price for economic growth.

(featured image: “Cutest Koala” by Erik Veland – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Petitions:

Olive Vale in Cape York is just one example out of many clearing permits currently in the pipeline.

Stop the Dozers

 

Unless we stop habitat loss and limit global warming, our threatened species like the koala and the cassowary don’t stand a chance.

Protect the wildlife we love!

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Orange-Bellied parrots – disease threat

The Federal Government is attempting to speed up action over a fatal disease in Australia’s most critically endangered wild bird, the orange-bellied parrot. The Beak and Feather Disease virus is known to be present in common species, ­including sulphur-crested cockatoos and rainbow lorikeets.

Threatened Species Commissioner Gregory Andrews said he wanted to boost the parrot’s captive population as part of an urgent response to an outbreak of beak and feather disease. “This bird is right on the edge of an extinction precipice in the wild,” Mr Andrews said. With such few numbers struggling against “developments” and environmental destruction, any disease could destroy their stronghold on existence.

The threatened species breeds in Tasmania’s Southwest National Park and the birds migrate to Victoria and South Australia every winter. A captive breeding program for the orange-bellied parrot has been in place since 1986. It’s a real Aussie battler!

Around 64 wild parrots flew out of their single Tasmanian breeding colony this autumn for Victorian coastal wintering grounds. 27 were captive bred and released to the wild. The young are listless and shedding feathers. With such small numbers, fewer than 70 in the wild, there’s no room for disease, neglect or complacency. Such small number don’t encourage genetic diversity, or robustness in the species.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has urged the government to reconsider plans to allow logging and mining in the 1.5 million hectare area. Tasmania has some of the tallest forests in the world … big jagged mountains, tall eucalyptus forests, some very unique species like the orange bellied parrot,” Bob Brown Foundation spokeswoman Jenny Weber said.

The food plants that they rely on—plants that—provide seed on an annual basis rely on high salt tolerance. Their odd adaptations have contributed to their current predicament because their large geographical range and specific habitat needs make them harder to legislate for. Coastal salt marsh generally has been looked upon as a wasteland, prime for development for things like petro-chemical plants, even housing, marinas, that sort of thing. The sort of habitat that they live in is so close to the coast that it is highly desirable for development. So, the greatest threat to Orange-bellied parrots is human encroachment and destruction of the specific habitats, what we call “developments”!

Dr Stojanovic from the Australian National University’s Fenner School of Environment and Society said he felt for the many scientists who had invested so much of their time and emotion into saving the species. He says that there’s a tendency to say ‘it’s too hard, let’s put our resources where there is more bang for buck’, but I don’t think we can put our hands on our hearts and say we have put serious money into this. We haven’t done everything we can.

Carpenter Rocks saving Orange Bellied parrot
(Sign at Carpenter Rocks, South Australia 2015)
There is a call for a boost in breeding parrots in captivity as a response to the outbreak responsible for their decline.

Although we acknowledge that some extinctions are inevitable and part of the evolutionary process, we believe every creature has the right to a chance to survive, and not be eliminated by hostile economic activities and human encroachments.

Australia, famous for mammal extinctions, is also ramping up our world record to include native bird extinctions.

Petition: Provide more funding for the endangered Orange-bellied Parrots.

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