The Habitat Advocate

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Australia claims a noble record of wildlife conservation. These days we rely upon governments to perform their custodial duties to protect Australia’s vulnerable flora and fauna. But our Australian ground dwelling mammals continue to disappear. Is it because of government policy, neglect, under-resourcing, or condoning of habitat destruction?

The key problem is the lack of independent and unbiased biological and zoological measurement.

Year upon year, habitat encroachment through farming, mining, housing and prescribed burning our Australian ground dwelling habitat and its dependent mammalian species, continues to disappear. Recognised tests of habitat health iinclue the change in numbers of top order predators, the mix of biodiversity, and simply the observed presence of fauna, for instance when bushwalking.

Australia’s city-based environmental conservation movement lobbies from time to time, but seriously, if Australia’s species are to be saved from extinction, ignoring the spin from government agencies that man-made bushfire, farming, roads, mining, housing development is ‘sustainable’, billions invested in wildlife sanctaries will avert Australia’s world leading extinction record.

The extinction risk to Australia’s endemic species (rare, threatened, endangered) is that no government department is internationally legally accountable for monitoring the health of the species nor guaranteeing its survival.

Australia’s natural habitat risks decline in a comparable way to that of the Sumatran and Borneo rainforest habitat of the orang-utan.