Australia is losing mammals faster than any other country, as well as plenty more plants and animals besides. Extinction is theft from future generations – it’s time to treat it as such.
- Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University
New research has shown how to measure conservation progress for Australia’s 238 endangered bird species
A new map shows that more than 25% of all land outside Antarctica is held and managed by Indigenous peoples. This makes these communities vital allies in the global conservation effort.
More than 1,500 introduced species have been recorded on the Galapagos Islands, and most have arrived since the archipelago’s tourism industry was expanded in the 1970s.
For the first time, researchers have estimated the toll taken by feral and pet cats on Australia’s bird life - and the numbers are high enough to push several species towards extinction.
Do companies really mean it when they talk about being socially responsible? Judging by their mission statements and homepages, it seems increasingly that resources firms do, but many retailers don’t.
A 21st century government would put the environment on at least an equal footing with the economy. That means no more extinctions, and no more putting ourselves before wildlife or future generations.
After falling victim to disease, there seems to be little hope left for Australia’s most endangered parrot.
Heat cost Australia nearly A$7 billion in 2014, which is bad news given climate forecasts of hotter and more frequent heatwaves.
Tony Abbott is spending this week in North-East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories…
Rufous Scrub-birds have been calling loudly from the mountains of eastern Australia ever since Australia parted from Gondwana 65 million years ago. They are still there today – as noisy as ever, though…
Australia’s threatened animals and plants may have received a small win today — the announcement of Australia’s first threatened species commissioner by Environment Minister Greg Hunt in Melbourne. The…
Big Ritchie looks up from his pile of bananas, unperturbed by the flock of tourists taking his photo. Sprawled around him, mother orangutans* and their fluffy orange babies groom affectionately, chase…
Rising sea levels are typically written about as a “threat to future generations” – something to worry about by 2050 or 2100, not now. But if you want to see why even relatively small increases in sea…
If you had to ask an average Australian the name of a threatened bird in this country, many would nominate the Orange-bellied Parrot. Critically endangered, and with fewer than 50 left in the wild, it…
The Coalition will instate a Commissioner for Threatened Species should it form government, according to shadow environment minister Greg Hunt. The minister says that, while management plans for threatened…
Australian researchers are developing a new tool to help track and manage the vast numbers of disease-carrying insects blown from Asia into northern Australia every year by cyclones and monsoon winds…
It will be no surprise that a recent analysis of biodiversity funding round the world found that Australia was among the 40 countries spending least in comparison to our global legacy of species. Now…
In 1999, Robert Hill’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act (EPBC Act) was enacted. One of its hard-fought provisions was that threatened species (and ecological communities) had to be considered…
Tim Flannery, in his Quarterly Essay After the Future, is right to deplore the sudden abrogation of responsibility for threatened species by state and federal governments. The tragedy is that neglecting…
Scientists have mapped the first family tree for all known living bird species, showing that new species appeared on Earth much faster than originally thought. The research, which links all 9993 known…
The last few weeks have seen an extraordinary cross party agreement that environmental regulation of development needs reform. The Prime Minister wants coordination with the states streamlined; the Leader…
Australia is a signed up member of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and a strong supporter of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Both these global programs are trying to reduce the rate…
This past Christmas, Darwin waited with unnecessary nervousness as Cyclone Grant developed to our north. It missed us, but on Boxing Day it dumped 385mm of rain into the Edith River. The resulting flood…
A recent article in Nature Neuroscience contends that optimism is hard-wired – that we are more likely to update our knowledge with positive than negative news. So what happens if all the news seems bad…
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