The performance of Australia’s mining industry in restoring the native landscape could one day be judged by …. koalas.
Everyone has heard of kangaroo courts – but new research suggests that, at least in some parts of the country, koalas and other native animals may be best placed to adjudicate whether or not minesite rehabilitation is a success.
Media release - 24 June 2013. Full release HERE
Press release - for immediate release 11 June 2013
Worldwide, around 20,000 endangered animal species are competing for scarce conservation funds – but just 80 'celebrity species' are hogging most of the attention. The world has developed a very inefficient way of choosing which animals facing extinction to save, says Professor Hugh Possingham of the National Environmental Research Program's (NERP) Environmental Decisions Hub and The University of Queensland (UQ). This has led to extinctions that could have otherwise been avoided, he cautions.
FULL RELEASE HERE
May 2 2013 - for immediate release
Millions of shorebirds could be lost as sea levels rise in the coming decades, international environmental scientists have warned. World-first research predicts that a loss of 23 to 40 per cent of the birds' main feeding grounds could lead to a 70 per cent decline in their population. This places some of the world's shorebirds at greater risk as some areas have already reported alarming population losses of 30-80 per cent.
"Each year, millions of shorebirds stop at coastal wetlands to rest and feed as they migrate from Russia and Alaska to the coasts of Southeast Asia and Australasia," says Dr Richard Fuller of the National Environmental Research Program's (NERP) Environmental Decisions Hub and the University of Queensland (UQ).
For immediate release - 22 april 2013. Based on Australian environmental experience, scientists have proposed a practical way to tackle the urgent need to restore huge areas of badly‐degraded forest and grassland worldwide.
In the latest issue of the journal Decision Point, Professor Richard Hobbs of the National Environmental Research Program's Environmental Decisions Hub and University of Western Australia (UWA), says that large‐scale environmental restoration – like that set as a goal by the recent Earth Summit – often faces high costs and major setbacks.
FULL MEDIA RELEASE HERE
Australians will be happier, safer and healthier if they look after the wildlife in their cities, according to a new scientific study.
A review by Dr Richard Fuller of the National Environmental Research Program's (NERP) Environmental Decisions Hub and The University of Queensland (UQ) shows that having nature close to home and work can boost people's health, improve their ability to think, and help lower violence and aggression in the community.
January 29, 2013 – for immediate release
Scientists have developed a new way to rescue the Bogong High Plains and their endangered alpine wetlands from invading European willows.
The new strategy calls for an exclusive focus on eradicating willows within the threatened bogs – patches of muddy ground where the soil is always wet, says Dr Joslin Moore from theNERP Environmental Decisions Hub and the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.
Full release HERE
Australian farmers and scientists working together have developed a world-first approach to restoring native landscapes on a large scale and measuring their recovery.
In one of the largest conservation projects of its type in the world, environmental researchers have developed a new, lost-cost, system for monitoring the recovery of wildlife and native trees and grasses on 153 farms spread over 172,000 square kilometres of the critically endangered grassy woodlands of NSW and Queensland.
Full media release HERE
Lewins Honeyeater by Tom Oliver, Birds in Backyards Project
Australian cities can keep their native wildlife – but only if they can kick their habit of urban sprawl.
That's the finding of a new study by leading Australian environmental researchers Jessica Sushinsky, Professor Hugh Possingham and Dr Richard Fuller of The University of Queensland.
"While urban development usually reduces the number of birds in a city, building more compact cities and avoiding urban sprawl can slow these reductions significantly," says lead author Jessica Sushinsky. "Compact housing developments leaves birds' homes untouched, leading to fewer local extinctions."
FULL MEDIA RELEASE HERE