Species
Species conservation lies at the heart of all WWF's work throughout Australia. Twenty per cent of Australia's animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction. Climate change, ongoing habitat destruction caused by land clearing, and the enormous risk posed by invasive weeds and feral animals, mean our native plants and animals face a bleak future if action is not taken now.
Leadbeater's possum
© WWF-Canon/Frédy MERCAY
WWF is addressing these major threats to species survival in Australia through broad-ranging campaigns and programs. We work directly with governments to ensure improved policy on species conservation, and our on-ground turtle conservation and shorebirds programs provide a coordinated, national approach to reversing population decline throughout Australia.
Our Threatened Species Network (TSN) partnership with the Australian Government also equips communities to preserve and protect at-risk species. Now in its 17th year, TSN provides $500,000 annually to around 35 community projects conserving threatened species through the TSN Community Grants Program. This hands-on involvement of hundreds of volunteers around Australia has helped protect more than 370 threatened plants, animals and ecological communities.
In the years ahead, WWF-Australia will continue to analyse the effectiveness of long-standing species recovery plans and work with scientists to develop new models for recovery.
Recent Species News
Conservation Priorities for Western Australia
The next Government of Western Australia has the opportunity and responsibility to secure some of Australia's most important biodiversity assets and ecosystem services. It is far cheaper to maintain our natural systems than it is to attempt to restore them. WWF has identified its priority conservation issues for Western Australia, and how these can be best addressed by the next Government.
Continue reading 'Conservation Priorities for Western Australia'
Australia's kangaroos and wallabies face extinction without urgent action
Australia's macropods, kangaroo and wallaby species, will face extinction if urgent action is not taken to protect their habitat, warns WWF-Australia in the lead up to National Threatened Species Day.
Safe haven or supermarket: shark populations decline while we wait
WWF is urging the Federal Government to make 'the Serengeti of the Sea', Australia's Coral Sea, a safe haven for threatened sharks and hundreds of other marine species.
Research into rare dolphin may uncover new subspecies in Australia
A research project aimed at understanding more about the rare and elusive snubfin dolphin could be on the verge of identifying a new species of dolphin living in waters just north of Broome, in north-west Australia.
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