Thomas Whitton
NSW.Biodiversity"It's absolutely the case that it's easier to get a permit to destroy nature rather than repair it."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-31/environment-nature-destruction-permit-waterways-conservation/104729768
#RestoreNature #biodiversity #KunmingMontreal #rivers #naturerepair #laws #destruction #nature
Mojo ♻️#Australia leads the world in species #extinction and environmental decline. The issue is so dire that the federal government is turning to private sector funding for nature repair. #EnvironmentalCrisis #NatureRepair
BellingenNSWAnother meeting on biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse
"Australia, the sixth most biodiverse country in the world, has listed 2,224 species and ecological communities as threatened with extinction. These losses are predicted to escalate if we continue business as usual and allow continued decline of ecosystems."
"Despite having pledged to end deforestation by 2030, Australia is the only deforestation hotspot among developed nations. Land clearing continues apace in northern Australia, often without being assessed under national environmental laws. We desperately need to reverse the decline in nature, once and for all."
https://theconversation.com/australia-is-hosting-the-worlds-first-nature-positive-summit-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter-236236
#biodiversity #BiodiversityCrisis #destruction #deforestation #logging #meat #GBF #EPBCAct #NaturePositive #NatureRepair #NatureRepairMarket #ecosystems #collapse #extractivism #extinction
Private landholders control 60% of the Australian continent.
Many of Australia’s ecosystems are severely degraded.
Only 22% of Australia’s landmass is currently protected.
"About 60% of the continent is owned or managed privately – and 70% to 90% of inadequately protected wildlife is found mostly on such land, which includes farms, pastoral leases and mines."
"Through what legal mechanism can private landholders be engaged in biodiversity conservation? A conservation covenant is a legally binding commitment landholders make to restrict how their property is used."
"Existing covenants are generally used to protect high-value conservation land where ecosystems are healthy. Rarely are they used on degraded land needing restoration, such as overgrazed paddocks or former mining."
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https://theconversation.com/private-landholders-control-60-of-the-australian-continent-so-lets-get-them-involved-in-nature-protection-217450
#PrivateLandholders #degradation #mining #overgrazing #ConservationCovenant #NaturePositive #30x30 #nature #wildlife #koalas #Refuges #NatureRepair #restoration #conservation #biodiversity #climate
Fix Australia’s broken environmental laws to stop the rapid loss of nature
"Labor warned to clamp down on biodiversity offsets in environment law overhaul."
"The Australian government should significantly constrain the use of biodiversity offsets under its environmental law reform agenda and stop them being used for critically endangered wildlife, according to a report by a partnership of 11 universities."
"It recommended that offsets focused on restoring and creating new habitat and so-called “averted loss” offsets – which involve protecting existing habitat – be abolished."
“We know that the existing system has relied heavily on biodiversity offsets, and that this has failed to stem the destruction of nature in Australia."
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/13/stop-the-rapid-loss-of-nature-labor-warned-to-clamp-down-on-biodiversity-offsets-in-environment-law-
#biodiversity #offsets #DoubleDipping #EnvironmentLaw #30x30 #NaturePositive #NatureRepair #law #destruction #ecosystems
"Conservation groups challenge Labor over ‘lack of urgency’ on environment laws. Australia’s major conservation organisations have taken the Albanese government to task over what they say is a lack of urgency on environmental reform."
"The letter, signed by nine groups from the Places You Love alliance, including WWF Australia, the Australian Conservation Foundation, BirdLife Australia and the Wilderness Society, was sent a few weeks before the government announced it would selectively consult key stakeholders and experts instead of releasing draft legislation for public consultation before the end of the year."
Reforms "include a proposal that would give the environment minister powers to override a proposed decision from a new independent environment protection agency (EPA) and another that would allow developers to pay money into a fund rather than identify direct offsets to compensate for the destruction of habitat caused by their projects."
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/24/conservation-groups-challenge-labor-over-lack-of-urgency-on-environment-laws
#Law #EPBC #Biodiversity #conservation #PlacesYouLove #EPA #PYL #PublicConsultation #consultation #NatureRepair #NatureRepairMarket #offsets #destruction #ExtinctionCrisis
What are ‘biodiversity offsets’?
Australia’s “nature repair market” is using market-based mechanisms to solve environmental problems instead of state regulation. Market place accounting of nature is the attempt to value and quantify complex ecological systems
"For example, biodiversity offsets are included in Target 19 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which covers finance for reversing biodiversity loss in this decade."
“In Australia, our government has gone as far as to say it can’t afford to do the job alone, because biodiversity conservation will cost around $1bn a year. To be clear, we spend close to $11bn a year on fossil-fuel subsidies and we want to spend $368bn on nuclear submarines…The idea that we can’t fund the environment is just false. Everything is affordable, if it’s a priority.”
“Australia is like a petri dish for some of the worst schemes that are then adopted globally."
"In its current form, the nature-repair market bill is a framework law with no methods, metrics, baselines or even definitions for biodiversity."
"All eight Australian states and territories have compliance-based biodiversity-offsetting schemes and an existing federal biodiversity-offset scheme.
Some of the better-defined units of trade include threatened species credits, “large old trees” and hectares of koala habitat."
“I think people are losing tolerance for corruption and conflicts of interest, and it is justified by the fact that they’re seeing their country falling apart around them. And the government’s answer is, well, let’s have another market.”
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https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/carbon-offsets-2023/biodiversity.html
#NatureRepair #market #nature #privatisation #commodification #extractivism #BiodiversityOffsetMarkets #GBF #GreenWallStreet #Australia #values #governance #regulation #koalas #NativeForests #Ecosystems #ComplexSystems #biodiversity #climate
