From oyster reefs to bandicoot grasslands, many Australian ecosystems no longer exist. Restoring nature is a good goal – but we cannot return to the past.
- Professor of Environmental Management, The University of Queensland
New research found regrowth in Queensland provided valuable habitat after 15 years, on average, with some species benefiting from trees as young as 3 years of age.
Three experts consider what’s required to protect and conserve Australia’s natural wonders, from fighting invaders to stopping habitat loss and saving species.
Three years ago, Australia pledged to end deforestation by decade’s end. But land clearing continues due to legal exemptions and a lack of enforcement
Spotlight on Australia’s ‘nature positive’ environmental reforms: last chance for this parliament to get serious about halting the decline of nature.
A new report challenges the notion that repairing our continent is a task too big and expensive to tackle.
Australia has a once-in-a-decade opportunity to fix environmental law. A new Wentworth Group report says the cumulative impacts from multiple projects must be considered.
Nature positive is the new rallying cry to reverse environmental decline. But it could easily become greenwash – if we’re not careful.
The Darwin woodland is home to endangered species and important for the Larrakia people. The development approval requires habitat offsets – yet the minister herself has publicly doubted offsets work.
Despite declines of Australia woodland birds and ongoing conservation investment, we don’t have many studies that show exactly how effective different management actions are for these species.
Getting that detail right could mean the difference between a species surviving, or disappearing forever.
The nature repair market is sold as a good news story: willing land managers benefiting nature with support from the private sector. But if offsets are part of it, the reality could be very different.
Populations of noisy miners have boomed since colonisation, and today they’re a huge threat to other native birds. 45 attempts to cull them in 30 years have left us with more questions than answers.
Australia has one of the worst track records in the world for species extinctions. The federal government’s proposed changes could weaken our already inadequate environment law.
As ecologists, we’ve seen first-hand how Australia’s nature laws have permitted environmental degradation and destruction to the point of extinction.
Compensation for losses from wildlife is an increasingly popular conservation intervention. However, a recent review cautions its use.
New science shows that estimates of the African lion numbers are underpinned by weak methods. But several new studies from Kenya and Uganda show that lions can be counted robustly.
The destruction of recent fires is challenging our belief that with enough time, love and money, every threatened species can be saved. But there is plenty we can, and must, now do.
Aside from their intrinsic value, common bird species might be one of the only ways we connect with nature in our everyday lives. But these opportunities are under threat.
In the event, the federal election turned out to be more about the economy than the environment. But there are steps the Coalition government can take to help conservation and boost the economy too.
A new petition is urging state and federal governments to rein in Australia’s rampant land clearing, which worsens the risk of bushfires and threatens to undo the work of the Emissions Reduction Fund.
New research has shown how to measure conservation progress for Australia’s 238 endangered bird species
Queensland’s new draft land-clearing laws aim to put the brakes on years of environmental destruction. But the bill contains several loopholes that are likely to stymie progress.
Just a handful of federal members of parliament represent hundreds of Australia’s threatened species.
To conserve Earth’s remarkable species, we must also defend the importance of science and scientific integrity.
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