Protecting Australia's natural areas against climate change: symposium
18 Jun 2007
Protecting Australia's natural areas against climate change and stopping a potential wave of extinctions across the country will be the subject of debate today as scientists and parks agency representatives arrive in Canberra for the Climate Change and Protected Areas Symposium.
The symposium, organised by WWF and the IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas, runs for two days and will feature a panel of 50 experts on ecosystems, climate change and protected areas. Parks Australia and the Australian Greenhouse Office are major sponsors.
The symposium follows closely on the heels of the Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in March. The IPCC report found that Australian wildlife, habitats and natural ecosystems face massive upheavals due to global warming, potentially resulting in a series of extinctions across the country.
Australia has lost over a hundred species already in the past 200 years, with another 1,590 native species currently threatened with extinction.
"Many of Australia's species face major upheavals and disruptions as a result of changing climatic conditions and these species will need room to migrate as their habitats change," said conservation biologist Dr Martin Taylor, Protected Areas Manager with WWF-Australia.
"Only a large well-buffered, well-connected and well-managed system of protected areas can carry these species safely through the changes brought about by rising temperatures. This symposium is all about hammering out a roadmap for that system."
The symposium includes experts from the CSIRO, various university and parks agencies, experts on protected area planning and management, and experts on biodiversity, wildlife ecology and climate science.
The keynote speaker at the symposium, Dr Michael Dunlop, a biodiversity analyst at the CSIRO, is the author of a report looking at possible changes to biodiversity under a changing climate.
"There is no question that our natural ecosystems are going to look, sound and smell different," Dr Dunlop said.
"Some species will adapt, others may decline or become extinct but almost all will change in some way. The conservation challenge is how to adapt to climate change and how to minimise loss."
Some of other experts at the symposium will include:
- CSIRO rainforest expert Dr David Hilbert
- Griffith University's alpine ecosystems expert Dr Catherine Pickering
- James Cook University's conservation planning expert Prof Bob Pressey
- The Australian National University's Director of the WildCountry Research and Policy Hub Prof Brendan Mackey
- CEO of the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Country Alliance Joe Morrison
Penelope Figgis AO, the Australia and New Zealand Vice Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, will moderate the main sessions.
WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne will open the symposium.
Find out more
Charlie Stevens, Press Officer, WWF-Australia
Phone: 02 8202 1274
Mobile: 0424 649 689
Email: cstevens@wwf.org.au
Elise Hawthorne, Exposure Communications,
Phone: 0413 363 232
