Conservation plan aims to save Australia's only biodiversity hotspot
05 Feb 2009
The Southwest Australia Ecoregion Initiative, led by WWF-Australia and the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation, will today launch the first phase of an Australian Government-funded project that will develop a conservation strategy to preserve Australia's only internationally-listed biodiversity hotspot; a region under significant threat.
The Southwest Australia Ecoregion covers an area larger than Victoria and is home to 6759 species of plants and the highest concentration of rare and endangered species in Australia, including seven mammal species, 13 birds, 34 reptiles and 28 frogs that are found nowhere else in the world.
WWF-Australia, one of a number of groups that forms the Southwest Australia Ecoregion Initiative, has warned that without urgent investment into the conservation of this internationally significant region, Australia is at risk of losing the amazing biodiversity that has put this region on the world map.
"The tragedy is that parts of this region are so badly degraded by human activities that without urgent action we risk losing the amazing biodiversity that exists in our backyard," said WWF's Southwest Australia Regional Program Manager, Cheryl Gole.
"Those areas that do remain relatively intact are still endangered by human-induced threats including climate change, invasive species, land clearing, dryland salinity and environmentally-damaging agricultural practices."
The Australian Government's Caring for our Country program has invested $367,000 to establish a conservation plan that takes in an area that extends in a rough triangle from Shark Bay to Esperance and along a narrow strip of coastline to the South Australian border.
The Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation was a key contributor to the development of the project and provided specialist biodiversity conservation advice. The wheatbelt around Merredin is an example of just one of the 10 bioregions where tough decisions must be made. Only seven per cent of the original bushland remains in this area, now known as the wheatbelt.
"In the remnant bushland, you can see an incredible diversity of plants in a very small area, but sadly, so much of the bushland of this region has been cleared. Just standing in those remnants makes you wonder what plants and animals may have become extinct before we even knew they existed," Ms Gole said.
Internationally-renowned conservation planner, Professor Bob Pressey from James Cook University in Queensland, has been engaged to help identify the most critical areas for conservation in Southwest Australia.
"Conservation planning will enable us to make smarter decisions about how we save the treasures of the Southwest before we lose them. Future generations will look back and judge us on how well we do this job." said Professor Pressey.
WWF Program Leader-West, Paul Gamblin, said that the initial aim of the draft plan was to establish in detail exactly what remained in the region and how it could best be saved.
"Despite the incredible ecological value of this region, we still don't have a sufficiently clear understanding of what it contains," said Mr Gamblin.
"In an area where we discover new plants every year and that is home to animals like the sunset frog - the only representative of a species that is estimated to be 30 million years old - it is time to urgently prioritise conservation action in this place. There is no time to lose and we acknowledge the recognition of this urgency by the Australian Government through its funding of the planning project."
For more information:
Paula Schibeci,WWF-Australia Press Office.
Phone: (08) 9442 1213 or 0406 381 137
