Previous analysis by the 30 by 30 alliance<\/a> shows that while federal spending on biodiversity is increasing, over the past decade it has averaged only 30% of OECD levels, and less than 8% of the estimated annual need. The latest research found that some countries \u2013 including the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland \u2013 spend up to 219 times more on biodiversity per square kilometre than Australia.<\/p>\nQuantifying nature\u2019s value<\/p>\n
Lakefield pastoral station, 140kms south of Katherine NT, has won Landcare and conservation awards for sound environmental management by the Riggs family, Gary and Michelle. Photo credit: David Hancock.<\/p>\n
To arrive at a targeted funding figure of 1% of the federal budget, analysts first sought to understand the value of nature to Australia in economic terms. \u201cIt\u2019s intuitively obvious that nature produces so much for the Australian economy, but we needed to take a deep dive and really quantify just how much it does contribute,\u201d Lyddieth says.<\/p>\n
The answer: nature-dependent industry sectors such as food production and tourism directly contribute more than $138bn to the Australian economy each year, the report says. Tens of billions more are collected each year in environmental taxes and taxes from nature-based industries (in 2021-22, this was estimated to be $58bn). Add factors that are intrinsically but indirectly tied to nature \u2013 such as climate regulation, water purification and flood protection \u2013 and nature\u2019s value to the economy rises to more than $511bn annually.<\/p>\n
In light of these findings, the Nature Economics report argues that increasing spending to protect nature is not only critical for environmental reasons, but makes sound economic sense.<\/p>\n
The way forward<\/p>\n
Lyndal Scobell, of Cape York Natural Resource Management Ltd, and Laura Land and Sea Ranger, Roderick Doughboy, discuss land management issues at the Split Rock Escarpment overlooking the Kennedy Valley near Laura in Outback Queensland. Photo credit: Kerry Trapnell.<\/p>\n
As well as proposing funding targets, the report outlines nine policy pillars to support the strategic implementation of nature spending. These include establishing clear outcomes to target the biggest threats to nature; strengthening coordination between federal, state and local governments; leveraging private-public collaboration in nature investment; and engaging First Nations people in decision-making and implementation.<\/p>\n
The nine pillars are interconnected, fundamental and underpinned by a focus on people, Lyddieth says. \u201cEnsuring that we\u2019re engaging with communities is critical; we need to bring people along this journey. And part of that is the incredible First Nations knowledge that we have in Australia. We have tens of thousands of years of successful management of Australia, and we need to learn from that.\u201d<\/p>\n
An urgent call<\/p>\n
Lyddieth says Australians intuitively understand the value of nature but underestimate the severity of the current crisis. Over the past 200 years, Australia has experienced the greatest biodiversity decline of any continent, with at least 17 ecosystems showing signs of collapse or near collapse, the report says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the overwhelming majority of Australians want to see more nature protection, most don\u2019t realise there\u2019s a nature crisis because we have such abundant nature and you don\u2019t need to go far out of the cities to see it,\u201d Lyddieth says. \u201cIt\u2019s only when you look at the science and the statistics that you understand that Australia\u2019s nature is really under strain and that the need for increased funding becomes apparent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Take action at 30by30.org.au.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An alliance of Australian conservation, land management and science groups is calling on the Australian government to increase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-2139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}