Dozens of Aussie species declared threatened

State Government promises to save koala colony

The number of threatened species in Australia has reached a record high, with more animals and plants in danger of extinction than ever before.

A total of 144 species were added to the government’s 2023 list of threatened species, which is five times higher than the yearly average, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) reported.

Some of the newly threatened animals are uniquely Australian, including the pink cockatoo, broad-toothed rat and Canberra grassland earless dragon, ACF Nature Campaigner Peta Bulling said.

“It is devastating to see that we are losing these iconic, unique species that are found nowhere else in the world,” Bulling said.

“There are so many interlocking reasons that animals are being pushed towards extinction in Australia and primarily its climate change, invasive species and habitat destruction.”

Australia now has 2212 threatened species and is facing a worsening extinction crisis, with koalas and northern quolls among the most severely impacted mammals, the ACF found.

While species extinction is a natural process of evolution, Bulling said the current extinction rate is around 10,000 times higher than the natural rate.

The ACF said more than 10,426 hectares of habitat were destroyed last year under Australia’s environmental laws, with more land likely to have been illegally cleared for agriculture.

“We urge Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to make sure the reform of the national environment law deals with the problem of habitat destruction,” Bulling said.

Professor David Lindenmayer from Australian National University’s Fenner School of Environment and Society and the Biodiversity Council said the extinction crisis will have detrimental effects on humans and economies worldwide.

“The World Economic Forum believes that half of the world’s economy is vulnerable to the effects of species extinction, so there are direct economic implications,” he said.

“We lead the world in mammal extinctions and we’ve got lots of other mammal species that have been added to the list and are on steep downward trajectories.”

Lindenmayer said former Coalition environmental minister Sussan Ley’s decision to scrap the Threatened Species Recovery Hub in 2022 had hurt the efforts of scientists to protect Australia’s vulnerable species.

“We lost the most important capacity to maintain the country’s natural heritage,” he said.

“We invest 90 per cent less than we actually need to invest to stop species going extinct.”

Lindenmayer believes endangered species can be better protected through more engagement between scientists, policy-makers and land managers.

Plibersek said the spike in threatened species is also because of a backlog of listing assessments, with many vulnerable species not declared threatened years ago by the previous minister.

“Labor is investing more money in the environment than any government in Australian history, including cracking down on the feral animals and weeds killing our native species, as part of a $500 million investment,” Plibersek said.

“We’re also fixing the Liberal Party’s broken environmental laws, including establishing Australia’s first national Environment Protection Agency – a transparent and independent body to enforce our environment laws.

“No one wants to see another of our precious plants or animals go extinct.”