Climate experts urge rapid expansion of parks
08 Aug 2007
The World Bank's former chief biodiversity advisor, Dr Tom Lovejoy, has endorsed calls by a panel of top Australian conservation science experts to make rapid expansion of Australia's National Reserve System the top priority for climate change adaptation.
Dr Lovejoy, who has also been a senior adviser to the President of the United Nations Foundation and has served on numerous science and environmental advisory councils for the Reagan, Bush and Clinton presidencies in the US, said more nature reserves were needed in Australia as a matter of urgency to protect core wildlife habitats.
"Climate change is already well underway and animal and plant species are already on the move. To avoid losing them it's urgent that we ensure they have well-protected homes to go to and secure ways to get there," Dr Lovejoy said in Canberra today.
Dr Lovejoy today launched the published proceedings of an expert symposium held in June entitled 'Protected Areas: buffering nature against climate change', which was organised by WWF-Australia and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.
Dr Lovejoy said early and prompt action on the reserve system would, in addition to saving Australia's unique wildlife, return significant economic paybacks, generating "billions in ecotourism revenues and ecosystem services, like clean air, rainfall and clean water, climate and flood control."
Protected areas expert with WWF-Australia, Dr Martin Taylor, said consensus at the June symposium - which brought together experts on ecosystems, climate change and protected areas - was strong on the point that a major leap in reserve system investment was needed.
"At least $80 million annual investment by the Australian government – roughly ten times past levels - is needed to acquire new reserves in strategic locations as well as to help Traditional Owners manage the growing system of Indigenous Protected Areas," Dr Taylor said.
"Failure to implement this practical rescue package now would greatly increase the risk of native species being unable to adapt to climate change and declining to extinction."
Dr Lovejoy published the landmark conservation science text Climate Change and Biodiversity in 2005. He currently serves as President of the Heinz Centre for Science, Economics and the Environment in Washington DC.
The National Reserve System is Australia's collection of national parks and nature reserves, Indigenous and privately owned protected areas dedicated to the protection of biodiversity.
The report of the symposium is available online at wwf.org.au/publications/cc-report/
Find out more
Charlie Stevens, Press Officer, WWF-Australia
Phone: 02 8202 1274
Mobile: 0424 649 689
Email: cstevens@wwf.org.au
