The Australian Greens today put their support behind an environmental declaration on biodiversity management in Australia, calling for immediate Government action.
"As the Boobook Declaration outlines, we need a significant increase in research capacity to enable our best scientific minds to tackle the significantly high level of ongoing biodiversity loss together with the serious threats posed to biodiversity by climate change, weeds and feral animals in a fragmented landscape,” said Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert.
The Boobook Declaration was released today as a joint statement from forty environment groups across Australia.
- The Boobook Declaration can be found at www.boobook.org.au
"We need a much larger investment in biodiversity, increasing funding up to $9 billion over the next 3 years.
"The Government has clearly dropped the ball with biodiversity management in Australia. The Caring for our Country program has devastated regional capacity and seriously undermined community engagement by slashing regional NRM funding and junking long-term plans."
"Next year is the International Year of Biodiversity and as yet the Federal Government has not made any announcements and does not appear to have any plans. This is strange, given that we are the only so-called developed nation that is one of the mega-biodiverse countries in the world," said Senator Siewert.
"I understand that the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is considering the appalling draft biodiversity strategy early next week. I urge them to put in place a robust and comprehensive strategy”.
"We need to properly fund programs that address threatening processes and help species to recover. We need to stop threatening habitats and species with land-clearing, inappropriate development, disease and feral plants and animals."
"The Australian Greens support the urgent call to action in the Boobook Declaration, and call on the Government to act upon the recommendations in this statement," she concluded.
The Boobook Declaration can be found at www.boobook.org.au and has the following recommendations:
- Acknowledge the critical importance of safeguarding biodiversity as part of Australia’s climate change response and commit to correspondingly urgent action to address the systemic drivers of biodiversity loss. In so doing, due recognition should be given both to the threat that global warming poses to biodiversity and ecosystems such as the Great Barrier Reef, and to the vital role these have in mitigating dangerous climate change including by permanently storing carbon;
- Substantially increase investment in biodiversity and ecosystem protection, restoration and management to at least $9 billion over the three years to 2012 and establish an independent widely consultative process into future funding and stewardship of Australia’s, terrestrial, aquatic and marine biodiversity;
- Restore and increase the capacity for publicly funded biodiversity research, auditing, monitoring, accounting and communication, including through an expanded independent Land, Water and Biodiversity authority; and
- Develop our biodiversity education and training programs so that all sectors of the Australian community and business have the knowledge to understand the magnitude of current threats to our biodiversity and the skills to take action to conserve our biodiversity and ecosystems. This is essential to transforming our nation to a healthy, sustainable society and economy.
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