Conservation Matters
- Peter Valentine
- Apr 17
- 7 min read
Updated: May 10
Peter Valentine | Conservation Officer
Let me start with some welcome news. In the recent Federal budget, it was announced that another $250 million would be allocated to our Protected Areas to help reach the longer term target of 30% of our land and sea under protection by 2030. This is a laudable and essential step in trying to ensure most of our biodiversity might survive.
Well done to the Australian Government for this new investment. Of course it needs to be allocated wisely, and so we need every ecosystem type and habitat to be included for the best outcome for biodiversity – and that is not easy when we (humanity) have damaged and destroyed so many different habitats…. And continue to do so.
But even having areas included in our Protected Area system is no guarantee of success because such places need exceptional management – and that is an area in which we have done poorly.
Much of our National Park management has lost its in-house scientific expertise and the major focus is now more about helping visitors enjoy their visits, rather than ensuring that nature thrives. The loss of Traditional Owner management has been a significant transformation, and it is great to see many steps in place to bring that back. But even with appropriate expertise, external factors have huge impacts.
In the latest Outlook Report for the Great Barrier Reef (2024), despite some gains since the previous Report, a huge threat to the Reef is accelerating Climate Change and the local consequences.
Increasingly we see Climate Change as the greatest threat across almost all of our natural environments and in addition, a threat to humans and their settlements and industry also. In so many cases different elements combine for a far worse outcome. For example, Climate Change is already leading to conditions favouring much more intense and extensive wildfires, with their impacts on nature horrific.
Invasive species undermine the resilience of our ecosystems which further amplifies the impacts of Climate Change. In the Wet Tropics this is a very severe threat, and likely to have a dramatic impact on biodiversity including species loss within the rainforest.
Additional state and national funds to tackle the invasive Yellow Crazy Ant are welcome but the problem remains, with no guarantee new species of tramp ants will not turn up in the future. Yellow Crazy Ants could over-run many areas of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area with deadly outcomes for hundreds of species.
The more we lose of our ecological integrity the more vulnerable the ecosystem is to invasive species. We can of course act, and it is excellent to see bipartisan support for such actions (when these occur – all too rarely), but the amount of investment is always too low. We now know funding is not an issue – the foolish Australian extreme expenditure on non-existent submarines shows that very well. It is rather a matter of priority, and for most of the people interested in the conservation of nature, the lowest priority would likely be weapons of mass destruction.
This year (2025) we will see another Outlook Report published for the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, and I expect that will also show significant threats, some growing, from Climate Change and its local consequences.
Part of the problem we face is lack of local knowledge: field survey and monitoring are essential for that knowledge and good biodiversity management. For example, an ongoing monitoring project for the Wet Tropics Endemic Tooth-billed Bowerbird, led by Dominic Chaplin, is undertaking annual surveys of all known Tooth-billed Bowerbird display-courts in the Wet Tropics.
The Wet Tropics Endemic species of Tooth-billed Bowerbird (photo below), a leaf and fruit eating bird can be difficult to see, but with the right knowledge, its presence can be recognised when it sings from its court in the rainforest. It attracts females by singing, then woos them by dancing on its ground display-court.
In the discussion of declining insect populations the world over, very few long term monitoring sites are available to help document the changes, or allow a magnitude to be identified in our own region.
At a time of widespread loss of insect and other invertebrate fauna, the loss of entomology from our institutions is foolish. The declining availability of such teaching and research in Universities and other centres denies society access to expertise to assist in local management of conservation.
I am saddened quite often because of the frequent conflicts between people who feel entitled to do whatever they like, without any regard to the consequences on others, and the collateral damage to our wildlife.
One recent example is the sad death of endangered Fairy Terns in South Australia as a result of reckless beach driving. BirdLife Australia has made this a focus for campaigning against such beach driving, especially since they had asked the South Australian Government to implement seasonal closures. I have witnessed the careless beach driving in South Australia on many occasions – to my great disappointment.
In Western Australia I also observed uncontrolled beach driving on a Fitzgerald River National Park beach where Fairy Terns and Hooded Plovers nest. Vehicles are driven right through the nesting areas between high water mark and base of the fore-dunes.
I join with the BirdLife Australia National Office in chastising governments who turn their backs on such situations, too fearful of offending to even mention the issue. And in Queensland far too many beaches seem to have become committed to drivers rather than nature, including on K’gari, our magnificent sand island National Park.
The vast majority of our coast is not protected, so at the very least those beaches in our National Parks and other protected areas should be managed for the wildlife, not the beach wreckers. Recent research has documented the direct impact of such beach driving everywhere, and highlights the need for us to manage the situation much better.
Another area of inappropriate entitlement is the annual massacre of waterbirds in Victoria. Duck shooting is a hold-over from earlier times and is a cruel and unnecessary act of violence against our waterbirds.
BirdLife Australia has drawn attention to the recent survey that shows waterbird populations in Australia have declined as much as 90% over the last 40 years. It is this national calamity with regard to our waterbirds that should inform decisions about enabling such a violent hobby to continue.
During dry times elsewhere many ducks migrate to the few remaining wetlands, and that includes most of those wetlands used by duck-shooters in Victoria.
Endangered species like Freckled Duck and Australasian Shoveler are highly at risk despite their protected status. They have been frequently recorded as “off-target” kills because they occur in mixed flocks with legal targets. This species has turned up at Hasties Swamp on the Atherton Tablelands from time to time, sometimes staying for many months, and as many as 15 individuals being present. There is no justification for such a cruel hobby today. Other states have banned duck shooting.
Given further imminent threats to our waterfowl from H5 bird flu, there is no doubt that recreational shooting is now a very risky proposition for the long term survival of waterfowl. It is long past time to end recreational bird hunting in Victoria.
A great disappointment from the National Government is the failure to deliver on the reform of our National Environmental Law. When the Australian Labour Party (ALP) combines with the Liberal National Party (LNP) it is likely things get worse for ordinary people and the environment. The decision to reduce the existing inadequate capacity of the Law was deliberate, in order to enable a toxic industry (industrial salmon production) to continue with no real beneficiary except three foreign corporations (Brazilian, Canadian and New Zealand companies)….and a clear environmental loss. The Macquarie Harbour situation is horrific, all to deliver toxic products to unsuspecting Australians who still support the industry by buying such salmon at their supermarkets.
The weakening of our National environment laws undermines the ability to protect the many species at risk of extinction across the nation. In the forthcoming election it is important to ensure a stronger voice for nature, and that will take a little more effort to add pressure to parties and candidates to offer more for nature. Sadly the environment gets hardly a mention in the election statements of the two major parties. In either case it is hard to take promises seriously.
It is clear that the LNP intentions (as understood from the past and despite the lack of written policy statements) are extremely poor for the environment. The ALP has some positive policies for the environment, and others less so, while the Australian Greens (the Greens) are clearly offering stronger environmental policies. From a purely conservation point of view, choices in the election clearly favour the Greens.
It is perhaps telling to look at the 2025/2026 National Budget and note the complete absence of any section or element headlined Environment. No mention of the environment occurs anywhere in the overview document, and even in the appendices not much else is present (Protecting Our Environment gets $50 million, whatever that means, compared with $51 billion for defence).
However, it is worth remembering that our personal connections with nature are a beautiful antidote to all the things around us that we find troubling, whether it is attacks on equity, on the environment, on nature, or on many human institutions that support us when we are in need or that make our lives better.
As we survive the next few weeks of electioneering in Australia, and of insanity in the USA, it is good for all to take time out to enjoy the solace of nature. Conservation not only matters, it provides us with these beautiful opportunities to know our fellow creatures.
