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Overview
- How is the world’s biodiversity going?
- What is destroying it?
- What is the world doing about it?
- What are we doing?
Biodiversity threats in perspecitve
What is happening to biodiversity and what are we doing? Hugh - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
What is happening to biodiversity and what are we doing? Hugh - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
What is happening to biodiversity and what are we doing? Hugh Possingham FAA FNAS, @HugePossum Chief Scientist, The Nature Conservancy Univ QLD, ARC Laureate Fellow (20%) Overview How is the worlds biodiversity going? What is
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How are we going?
- Extinction rates 100-1000 times > background
- Australia has lost two mammal species this
century already
- Australia is losing >1 species/subspecies of bird
per decade (should be 1 per thousand yrs)
- Living Plant Index, Australian Threatened
Species Index
Biodiversity threats in perspecitve
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Living planet index – 60% decline
Biodiversity threats in perspecitve
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Australian TSX (birds) https://tsx.org.au/tsx/#/
Biodiversity threats in perspecitve
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What is destroying our biodiversity?
Ranking major threatening processes by the number of species they impact.
Maxwell, S.L., Fuller, R.A., Brooks, T.A. & Watson, J.E.M. (2016) Nature 536: 143-145
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Biodiversity threats in perspecitve
Major threat class Abbreviated major threat class classification Species threatened (n) Species threatened (% of total)
- 1. Residential & commercial
development Urban development 3014 34.7
- 2. Agriculture & aquaculture
Agricultural activity 5407 62.2
- 3. Energy production & mining
Energy production 913 10.5
- 4. Transportation & service
corridors Transportation 1219 14.0
- 5. Biological resource use
Overexploitation 6241 71.8
- 6. Human intrusions &
disturbance Human disturbance 1223 14.1
- 7. Natural system modifications
System modification 1865 21.5
- 8. Invasive & other problematic
species, genes & diseases Invasion & disease 2298 26.5
- 9. Pollution
Pollution 1901 21.9
- 10. Geological events
NA 122 1.4
- 11. Climate change & severe
weather Climate change 1688 19.4
- 12. Other options
NA 10 0.1
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Investment in conservation works, but …
BDS = Biodiversity Decline Score Colour shows percent of global BDS contributed by the country. Source: A Waldron et al. Nature 1–4 (2017) doi:10.1038/nature24295
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What works
- Traditional protection still delivers but …
- There is a massive management budget shortfall,
protected areas can be lost (PADDD), not representative
- Restoration
– Fire regimes – Temperate reefs – Flow regimes – Forests and forestry
- Novel market mechanisms – blue bonds, reverse
auctions, payments for ecosystem services, biodiversity
- ffsets and banking, insuring natural capital
Biodiversity threats in perspecitve
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Take home
- Reverse the funding decline, then multiply by ten
- Will Australia’s governments save our
biodiversity?
- Legislation that is enforced (underfunded and
dysfunctional EPBC Act)
- Be smarter, be bolder
- Decarbonise the economy, much cheaper than
you thought
- But what about the 10 billion people?
Biodiversity threats in perspecitve
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GLOBAL SITUATION ANALYSIS: BUSINESS AS USUAL
- World population grows to about
10 billion people
- Global GDP grows 8% per year
- Demand for food grows by 55%
- Demand for energy grows by 60%
FEE in press, Tallis et al. Heather Tallis Lead Scientist for Strategy Innovation
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