threatened species

"Rudd has direct responsibility to save species" - Brown

Over the eight years of operation of the nation's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act a major species, the Swift Parrot, has moved rapidly closer to extinction because of federal and state policy, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

The mass of extinctions now underway (see IUCN red list report today) underscores the urgent need for the global community to tackle human-induced climate change, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"Unlike when the dinosaurs went to extinction 65 million years ago, this onrush of mass extinctions of species is preventable. It will take coordinated international action, but action must begin at home," Senator Brown said.

"Environment Minister Peter Garrett should be leading this campaign. The most obvious first action is to stop the clear-felling and burning of native forests and woodlands, which are the habitat of scores of rare and endangered species, and which hold back megatonnes of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

In a 2 - 1 split judgement (Crennan, Hayne - Kirby) the High Court has rejected Greens Leader Bob Brown's application to appeal against the full Federal Court's decision which overruled Justice Marshall's 2006 ban on logging in Tasmania's Wielangta Forest.

There are strong concerns for the future of Natural Resource Management (NRM) in Australia after the Government were unable to give a coherent account of funding priority guidelines in response to Greens questions in Senate Estimates today.