In a call to Australia’s conservative Liberal-Nation Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, more than 240 conservation scientists have urged him to drop his opposition to stronger environment laws and seize a “once-in-a-decade opportunity” to fix a system that is failing to stem a worsening extinction crisis.
With the federal government due to this week announce a 10-yearly legislated review of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, the scientists have signed an open letter to the prime minister urging him to increase spending and back laws to help protect the natural world from further destruction.
The top conservation scientists, referring to an “extinction crisis”, made their appeal in an open letter ahead of the review of the EPBC Act to be announced by the federal government this week.
AAP Newsagency reports in their letter, the scientists said native species have been disappearing at an “alarming rate” with three species going extinct in the last decade, warning another 17 animals could go extinct over the next 20 years.
“Current laws are failing because they are too weak, have inadequate review and approval processes, and are not overseen by an effective compliance regime,” the scientists wrote.
“Our extinction crisis is primarily a result of habitat destruction, invasive species, altered fire regimes, disease and climate change damage.”
The EPBC Act from 1999 has a legislated review which must take place once-a-decade.
Among the group are Australian National University’s Dr Liz Hanna, who specialises in health impacts of climate change, University of Queensland conservationist Richard Fuller and La Trobe University bush conservationist Jim Radford.
AAP reports the Australian Greens Party backed in the scientists, describing Australia’s environmental laws as “way out of date” and demanding the minister launch the review this week.
Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley said the investigation would be an independent process, that would take external submissions.
“The government is investing significantly in Environmental restoration and land care programs to promote biodiversity and safe havens for our native species,” she said.
But the body of scientists said the review must be harnessed to ‘fix’ current laws and better protect and restore the environment.
“Increased investment in nature conservation must be backed by strong national environmental laws that protect our natural world from further destruction,” the scientists wrote.
“These laws must safeguard our intact ecosystems and protect the critical areas people and wildlife need to survive and tackle our most pressing threats.”
The review comes as the Liberal-National government has expanded areas for indigenous environmental protection by 27 per cent to 100 million hectares.
The move would establish indigenous protected zones in the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia.
“Indigenous protected areas play a key role in maintaining biodiversity,” Ms Ley said.
AAP reports a separate Senate inquiry is also examining “Australia’s Faunal Extinction Crisis” including the ongoing decline of nearly 500 threatened species and the effectiveness of the EPBC Act with these findings likely to be considered in their upcoming review.
The scientists said current environmental protection laws had led to 7.7 million hectares of threatened species habitat being destroyed.
“That’s an area larger than Tasmania,” they wrote.
“The number of extinctions continues to climb, while new threats emerge and spread unchecked.”
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