Category Archives: Endangered habitats

Tanya Plibersek approves habitat clearing in Darwin despite risk to endangered bird

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Environment minister says redesign would ‘avoid most adverse impacts’ on Gouldian finch, while critics point to Australia’s ‘terrible record on extinctions’

The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has approved habitat clearing for a defence housing development in Darwin despite acknowledging there is a significant risk for what has been described as one of Australia’s most beautiful endangered birds.

Plibersek had been asked last year to reconsider the development in savanna woodlands at Lee Point after more than 100 endangered Gouldian finches were spotted in bushland marked for imminent clearing.

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Activists take Canada’s environment minister to court in fight to save northern spotted owl

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Advocacy group says continued destruction of critical habitat leaves it no choice but to take legal action against Steven Guilbeault

Environmental groups in Canada are taking legal action against the country’s environment minister, arguing his delay in protecting old growth forest is harming the critically endangered northern spotted owl.

In February, Steven Guilbeault said he would recommend an emergency order after determining the species was facing “imminent threats” to its survival.

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The multinational companies that industrialised the Amazon rainforest

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Analysis shows handful of corporations extract tens of billions of dollars of raw materials a year – and their commitments to restoration vary greatly

A handful of global giants dominate the industrialisation of the Amazon rainforest, extracting tens of billions of dollars of raw materials every year, according to an analysis that highlights how much value is being sucked out of the region with relatively little going back in.

But even as the pace of deforestation hits record highs while standards of living in the Amazon are among the lowest in Brazil, the true scale of extraction remains unknown, with basic details about cattle ranching, logging and mining hard to establish despite efforts to ban commodities linked to its destruction.

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Failure to protect nature is a bigger threat to humanity than inflation, Australian scientists warn

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‘For just 10% of the stage-three tax cuts, we could recover every one of Australia’s almost 2,000 threatened species,’ says ecologist

Leading Australian scientists have accused the Albanese government of offering “grossly inadequate” funding to stop environmental decline, and warned that failing to protect nature would lead to “an existential threat greater than inflation”.

The Biodiversity Council, an independent research hub, said the limited funding for environment programs announced this week suggested that environment minister Tanya Plibersek’s promised target of ending species extinctions in the country was “still hollow”.

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Feral horses an ‘imminent threat’ that could cause extinction of several endangered Australian species, inquiry warned

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Scientific committee calls for ‘urgent action’ from the Albanese government to address damage caused to sensitive alpine ecosystems

Feral horses in the Australian alps pose an imminent threat to the Albanese government’s zero extinctions target, a scientific committee that advises the government on endangered species has told a parliamentary inquiry.

The threatened species scientific committee (TSSC) says feral horses “may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction” of six critically endangered animals and at least two critically endangered plants.

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Australian Ethical offloads Lendlease shares over development threat to koala population

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The fund believes itself to be ‘one of the first’ in Australia to divest from a company over a concern for an endangered species

One of Australia’s leading ethical investment managers says it has sold its shares in Lendlease over concerns a planned housing development in south-west Sydney threatens the survival of Sydney’s largest healthy koala population.

Australian Ethical has divested $11m in shareholdings in the property developer’s listed assets, saying Lendlease had failed to provide “critical information” about the width of planned koala corridors at stage two of its Gilead housing development.

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NSW Labor vows to fix ‘broken’ environmental offsets system if elected

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Spokesperson Penny Sharpe says current system has ‘no red lines’ and party will deliver changes within first 18 months of government

New South Wales Labor has promised to fix the state’s “broken” environmental offsets system if it wins government in March, saying current policies are causing decline of endangered ecosystems instead of avoiding more damage.

“I think there’s a role for offsetting but the current system is skewed the wrong way,” the party’s environment spokesperson, Penny Sharpe, said.

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US firm to bid to turn DRC oil permits in Virunga park into conservation projects

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Exclusive: company plans to sell carbon and biodiversity credits in endangered gorilla habitat and Congo basin rainforest as alternative to drilling for fossil fuels

A New York investment firm is to launch a $400m (£334m) bid for oil concessions in the Congo basin rainforest and Virunga national park with plans to turn them into conservation projects, the Guardian can reveal.

EQX Biome, a biodiversity fintech company, has sent an expression of interest to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government for 27 oil exploration blocks put up for auction last July, some of which are in critical ecosystems.

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Every household in England ‘to be within 15 minutes of green space or water’

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Major environmental plan includes tackling sewage spills and restoring wildlife habitats but critics question lack of funding

Every household will be within a 15-minute walk of a green space or water, under a major environmental improvement plan for England set out by the government on Tuesday.

The long-awaited measures will include commitments to restore at least 500,000 hectares (1.2m acres) of wildlife habitat, and 400 miles of river. This will include 25 new or expanded national nature reserves and 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of new woodland along England’s rivers. A new species survival fund will target some of the most threatened wildlife, including hedgehogs and red squirrels.

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UK plans for ‘sunsetting’ EU laws post-Brexit ‘not fit for purpose’

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Independent assessor deeply critical of proposals to discard up to 4,000 pieces of EU-derived legislation

The plans for discarding EU-derived laws following Brexit have been called “not fit for purpose” by the government’s own independent assessor.

Under new legislation that was the brainchild of the former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, thousands of laws copied from the EU to Britain’s statute book will be “sunsetted” by the end of next year if they are not each signed off by ministers to be kept.

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ACT urges Tanya Plibersek to quash defence housing plan that would destroy critically endangered grasslands

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Defence Housing Australia wants to clear nearly 16 hectares of natural temperate grassland in Canberra’s north-west

The ACT government has urged the federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, to reject a defence housing development that would destroy critically endangered grasslands in Canberra’s north-west.

Defence Housing Australia (DHA) has proposed building hundreds of houses on an old naval transmission site in the suburb of Lawson.

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Magnolia species lost to science for 97 years rediscovered in Haiti

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Conservationists find native magnolia for first time since 1925 after original habitat destroyed by deforestation

A conservation team has rediscovered a native magnolia tree in a forest in Haiti for the first time since it was lost to science in 1925.

Boasting pure white flowers and uniquely shaped leaves, the northern Haiti magnolia (Magnolia emarginata) was found originally in the forest of Morne Colombo, which has since been destroyed by deforestation. It was considered endangered and featured on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species, and its discovery has sparked new hope for the potential rewilding of Haiti’s forests.

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Kigali summit to outline strategy for nature conservation in Africa

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First continent-wide meeting aims to set out plans to halt and reverse habitat and species loss in protected areas on land and sea

African leaders will gather in the Rwandan capital this week for the first continent-wide meeting to set out plans for the conservation of nature across Africa.

The IUCN Africa Protected Areas Congress (Apac) in Kigali will attract close to 3,000 delegates, including protected area directors from the continent’s 54 countries, youth leaders and Indigenous and community representatives, to discuss the role of protected areas in conserving nature, promoting sustainable development, and safeguarding the continent’s wildlife.

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EU plan to halve use of pesticides in ‘milestone’ legislation to restore ecosystems

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Proposals – the first in 30 years to tackle catastrophic wildlife loss in Europe – include legally binding targets for land, rivers and sea

For the first time in 30 years, legislation has been put forward to address catastrophic wildlife loss in the EU. Legally binding targets for all member states to restore wildlife on land, rivers and the sea were announced today, alongside a crackdown on chemical pesticides.

In a boost for UN negotiations on halting and reversing biodiversity loss, targets released by the European Commission include reversing the decline of pollinator populations and restoring 20% of land and sea by 2030, with all ecosystems to be under restoration by 2050. The commission also proposed a target to cut the use of chemical pesticides in half by 2030 and eradicate their use near schools, hospitals and playgrounds.

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‘Secretive, adorable weirdos’: rare possum caught in the Northern Territory for first time

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Ecologists say discovery of scaly-tailed possum at Bullo River Station is a sign of positive benefit of private land conservation

A rare scaly-tailed possum has been caught in the Northern Territory for the first time in what scientists say is a sign that private land conservation is having a positive effect.

The scaly-tailed possum, also known as the Wyulda, is a rock-dwelling marsupial with stout limbs and a “grippy” tail it uses to hang from branches and rock ledges to reach for seeds, fruits and flowers.

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Florida’s manatees are dying in record numbers – but a lawsuit offers hope

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US wildlife agency agrees to review protection for habitats after conservationists sue over mass die-offs from poor water quality

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has agreed to update critical habitat protections for manatees after legal pressure from environmental groups, as the animals continue to die in record numbers.

More than 1,000 manatees died in Florida last year, wiping out more than 10% of the state’s population, the deadliest year on record. The unusually high mortality rate for the threatened mammals has continued into 2022, with 562 deaths in the first five months.

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Coalition scrapped recovery plans for 176 threatened species and habitats in one of its final acts

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‘On what sort of planet does the commonwealth think they don’t need a recovery plan for a Tasmanian devil’, asks Wilderness Society

Recovery plans designed to prevent the extinction of almost 180 threatened species and habitats, including the Tasmanian devil, were scrapped by the Coalition in one of Sussan Ley’s final acts as environment minister.

Last year, the Morrison government proposed removing the requirement for a legislated plan for 185 plants, animals and habitats, including several plans that were years overdue.

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Labor pledges millions in funding to protect threatened species and Great Barrier Reef

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Opposition says it will also provide a response to the Samuel review into Australia’s national environmental laws

Labor says it will establish a national threatened species program and provide a full response to the independent review of national environmental laws if it forms government.

In a policy announced Thursday evening the party promised $224.5m over the forward estimates for a national threatened species program that will include addressing the backlog of almost 200 overdue and outdated species recovery plans.

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, and Labor’s environment spokesperson, Terri Butler, said they would also work with state and territory governments to develop a national conservation strategy.

They did not say what the conservation strategy would entail.

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Missing in action: five issues the major parties are avoiding in the 2022 federal election

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Key areas such as conservation, the arts, science and education have been neglected in a narrowly focused campaign

With two weeks to go until the 2022 federal election, most of the key policy offerings from the major parties have already been outlined – but there are some big gaps. From conservation to education and the arts, both Labor and the Coalition have been short on detail. Here are six areas where voters are left in the dark:

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Six new wētā species found in New Zealand, as their habitat slowly disappears

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Global heating speeding up their decline as terrain of newly discovered alpine species disappears

Six new alpine species of New Zealand’s most unusual and beloved insect – the wētā – have been discovered, but it is a bittersweet victory, with another piece of research describing the threat global heating poses for their snowy mountain habitat.

Wētā belong to the same group of insects as crickets and grasshoppers, and there are between 70 and 100 species of wētā endemic to New Zealand. They are wingless and nocturnal, and some, including the wētāpunga, are among the heaviest insects in the world – comparable to the weight of a sparrow.

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