The Nature Positive Plan released in December 2022 laid out the pathway forward for the urgent reforms and the federal government committed to implementing the recommendations in full, including developing bioregional plans for Queensland that would protect vital habitat. However, time is ticking and nature needs the reforms implemented now.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest and woodland are lost in Queensland. The destruction of habitat is driving the extinction crisis and our state and federal laws are allowing this destruction to continue.
With iconic species at the brink of extinction such as the koala, greater glider and yakka skink. Our forests and woodlands need to be protected and regenerated. Right now, the new federal nature laws are being drafted and with the majority of clearing in Queensland not being referred for assessment under the current Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act it is crucial that the reforms get things right for nature.
The EPBC Act is barely monitored, rarely enforced and full of loopholes allowing businesses to destroy nature. Since Australia’s national environment protection law took effect 20 years ago, more than seven million hectares of threatened species habitat has been destroyed. In his independent review of the Act, Professor Graeme Samuel AC put forward 38 recommendations in October 2020 and we are yet to see any of those fully implemented.
The consequences of such grand scale destruction are huge. Australia has the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world – even the koala is now endangered across New South Wales, ACT and in our home, Queensland.
Email your federal MP today to let them know we need robust new nature laws now!