NEWS 26 August 2021 |
We worked closely with The Age to bring this important story out today. It’s one every nature-loving Victorian should read.
It details how the stunning Mount Cole grevillea, the enigmatic Masked Owl, and the beloved Burrunan Dolphin could be lost forever.
They, along with 2000 other native plants and animals are now on our state’s new Threatened List.
It seems bleak, but the story is one that doesn’t have an ending … yet.
The most recent environmental report card for Victoria, the ‘State of the Environment’ analysis published in 2018, found the environment was in worsening health in 51 of 170 categories and specifically “most biodiversity indicators are poor and trending downwards”.
The Andrews Government has done the right thing trying to improve our key threatened species laws by creating a more cohesive list. But with 20% of almost 2000 native species now listed as critically endangered – the last step towards extinction in the wild – the key test today is taking decisive action.
And that’s what’s been missing. Action. This includes more resources and prioritisation. Too often the fate of our special places and wildlife becomes unfinished paperwork on the desks of under-resourced staff.
As I said in the article, “The department has been hopeless on action statements; it has always put them in the bottom drawer … This new list is the manifestation of the declining nature of our natural environment and there needs to be significant investment and political will to try and turn that around.”
This includes:
- maintaining a comprehensive Threatened List
- prioritising creating Action Statements for these threatened species
- creating flora and fauna management plans to guide and implement conservation action
- identifying areas of critical habitat of threatened species
- making habitat conservation orders to protect critical habitats under threat
- enforcing the new flora and fauna duty on public authorities
These are all things we have been actively campaigning for – with your support.
You can help us continue our important work to protect nature – to push decision-makers for more action, educate and engage the community on important issues, provide valuable data through our citizen science programs, and so much more.
With climate change and extinction crisis in full flight, action is needed. Real action – movement and progress. Not just bureaucratic murmurings.
We can reverse the extinction crisis in Victoria, but we need less talk and more protection.
