Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
Release of draft National Biodiversity Strategy
MEDIA RELEASE
23 March 2009
The Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, on behalf of the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments, is inviting public comments on the draft Australia’s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy 2010–2020.
The draft strategy is an important national policy document that will guide how governments, the community, industry and scientists manage and protect Australia’s plants, animals and ecosystems over the next ten years.
This is particularly critical in the face of threats to the environment from climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation and invasive species.
The draft strategy sets out six priorities for change: building ecosystem resilience, mainstreaming biodiversity, knowledge for all, getting results, involving Indigenous peoples and measuring success.
Mainstreaming biodiversity is about everyone - the community, industry, government and non-government sectors- working in partnership to take biodiversity into account in everything we do.
Our society and the economy depend on our ‘natural capital’, especially sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry and tourism. Biodiversity also provides us with cultural, spiritual and recreational benefits.
The strategy’s vision is that Australia’s biodiversity is healthy, resilient to climate change and valued for its essential contribution to our existence.
Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is the variety of all life forms on earth: it is all the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, their genes, and the terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems of which they are a part.
Biodiversity underpins the essential ecosystem services that support human life. These include clean air and water, productive soils, and carbon sequestration. Biodiversity is essential for our existence and is intrinsically valuable in its own right.
If you would like to comment on the draft strategy, you can:
- attend a public information session, which will be held in all state and territory capital cities and some regional centres during March and April 2009
- download a copy of the draft Strategy and
- find out how to make a submission here: www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/index.html.
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