The grim findings on Australia's deteriorating environmental health
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"Environmental destruction costs our economy billions of dollars, with climate change and biodiversity loss representing both national and global financial risks."
limate change is exacerbating pressures on every Australian ecosystem and Australia now has more foreign plant species than native, according to the highly anticipated State of the Environment Report that was released in July. The report also found the number of listed threatened species rose 8% since 2016 and more extinctions are expected in the next decades. The document represents thousands of hours of work over two years by more than 30 experts. It’s a sobering read, but there are some bright spots. Australia has produced a national state of environment report every five years since 1995. They assess every aspect of Australia’s environment and heritage, covering rivers, oceans, air, ice, land and urban areas. The last report was released in 2017. This report goes further than its predecessors, by describing how our environment is affecting the health and well-being of Australians. It is also the first to include Indigenous co-authors. As chief authors of the report, we present its key findings here. They include new chapters dedicated to extreme events and Indigenous voices.
1. Australia’s environment is generally deteriorating There have been continued declines in the amount and condition of our natural capital – native vegetation, soil, wetlands, reefs, rivers and biodiversity. Such resources benefit Australians by providing food, clean water, cultural connections and more. The number of plant and animal species listed as threatened in June 2021 was 1,918, up from 1,774 in 2016. Gang-gang cockatoos and the Woorrentinta (northern hopping-mouse) are among those recently listed as endangered. Australia’s coasts are also under threat from, for instance, extreme weather events and land-based invasive species. Our nearshore reefs are in overall poor condition due to poor water quality, invasive species and marine heatwaves. Inland water systems, including in the Murray Darling Basin, are under increasing pressure. Nationally, land clearing remains high. Extensive areas were cleared in Queensland and New South Wales over the last five years. Clearing native vegetation is a major cause of habitat loss and fragmentation, and has been implicated in the national listing of most Australia’s threatened species.
2. Climate change threatens every ecosystem Climate change is compounding ongoing and past damage from land clearing, invasive species, pollution and urban expansion. The intensity and frequency of extreme weather events are changing. Over the last five years, extreme events such as floods, droughts, wildfires, storms, and heatwaves have affected every part of Australia. Seasonal fire periods are becoming longer. In NSW, for example, the bushfire season now extends to almost eight months. Extreme events are also affecting ecosystems in ways never before
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The report's authors above from left are: Professor Emma Johnston, University of Sydney, adjunct Professor Ian Cresswell, UNSW Sydney and honorary associate Professor, Terri Janke, UNSW Sydney. Their article below is republished from The Conversation under the Creative Commons licence. documented. For example, the downstream effects of the 2019-2020 bushfires introduced a range of contaminants to coastal estuaries, in the first global record of bushfires impacting estuarine habitat quality.
3. Indigenous knowledge and on-ground change This includes traditional fire management, which is being recognised as vital knowledge by land management organisations and government departments. For example, Indigenous rangers manage 44% of the national protected area estate, and more than 2,000 rangers are funded under the federal government’s Indigenous rangers program. Work must still be done to empower Indigenous communities and enable Indigenous knowledge systems to improve environmental and social outcomes.
4. Environmental management isn’t well coordinated Australia’s investment is not proportional to the grave environmental challenge. The area of land and sea under some form of conservation protection has increased, but the overall level of protection is declining within reserves. We’re reducing the quantity and quality of native habitat outside protected areas through, for instance, urban expansion on land and over-harvesting in the sea. The five urban areas with the most significant forest and woodland habitat loss were Brisbane, Gold Coast to Tweed Heads, Townsville, Sunshine Coast and Sydney. Between 2000 and 2017, at least 20,212 hectares were destroyed in these five areas combined, with 12,923 hectares destroyed in Queensland alone. Australia is also increasingly relying on costly ways to conserve biodiversity. This includes restoration of habitat, reintroducing threatened species, translocation (moving a species from a threatened habitat to a safer one), and ex situ conservation (protecting species in a zoo, botanical garden or by preserving
