Australian mammals dying out faster than any other continent
AUSTRALIA has lost more mammal species than any other continent because of climate change and land mismanagement, according to a “shocking” report into the scale of Australia’s species decline.
The five-yearly State of the Environment Report revealed that more than 200 plants and animals of national significance are under threat from a combination of drought, bushfires, floods, land clearance and rising temperatures.
The report found that Australia had lost more mammal species than any other continent. More than 100 Australian species have been declared extinct or extinct in the wild, including eight species of wallaby. Sydney alone had lost more than 80 per cent of its native vegetation cover to development.
Animals at risk of extinction in the next 20 years include the central rock rat, the Christmas Island flying fox fruit bat, the northern hopping mouse, the black-footed tree rat and the Carpentarian rock rat. Reptiles are also at risk, such as the blue-tailed skink lizard.
Tanya Plibersek, the environment minister, said the document told a story of crisis and decline, and a decade of government inaction and wilful ignorance. “Now is the time to read this report and take action,” she added. The review, which was completed by scientists last year, was held back from publication by the previous government until after May’s general election. It suggests that the number of threatened species has risen by 8 per cent since the last report was published in 2016.
But even that could be an underestimate given the huge areas of native habitat lost in the 2019 and 2020 bushfires, which destroyed vast tracts of forests in south-east Australia, the report said.
The findings were branded as “shocking” by Ms Plibersek, who pledged that the recently elected Labor government would not be putting its head in the sand.
She told the National Press Club in Canberra that new environment protection laws would be introduced to parliament next year and an agency would be set up to enforce them.
However, she rejected calls for deeper emissions cuts to help reduce the impact of global warming, insisting that the government would keep to its 43 per cent target by 2030.