Fauna crisis
highlights the failure of regional forest agreements, says Wilderness Society
Sat 30 Mar
2019 19.00 GMTLast modified on Sat 30 Mar 2019 21.28 GMT
Regional
forest agreements have failed in the 20 years since they were established by
state governments, says a new report, which reveals that record numbers of
threatened forest dwelling fauna and many species are heading towards imminent
extinction.
The
report, Abandoned –
Australia’s forest wildlife in crisis, has assessed the conservation status of
federally listed forest-dwelling vertebrate fauna species affected by logging
and associated roading and burning across Australia’s regional forest agreement
(RFA) regions in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.
Released by
the Wilderness Society this week, the report identified 48 federally-listed
threatened species of forest-dwelling vertebrate fauna living in areas subject
to state-run logging operations.
Four of
those species – the leadbeater’s possum, swift parrot, western ringtail possum
and regent honeyeater – are among the 20 bird and 20 mammal species most likely
to become extinct within 20 years.
It also
found that since the time the RFAs were signed, 11 forest vertebrate species
had been raised to “endangered” or “critically endangered” categories, bringing
the total to 24, and none had been lowered. Another 15 species were listed as
threatened for the first time.
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