Australia

This book tells the story of one of Australia’s natural wonders, Kosciuszko National Park. A National Heritage–listed treasure, the park is the home of the mainland’s highest mountains, past glaciation sites, limestone caves, fields of summer wildflowers and alpine animals and plants found nowhere else on Earth.

Investing in nature and Nature-based Solutions is an important pathway to address the current ecological crisis. The loss of biodiversity, with around one million animal and plant species threatened with extinction, is putting at risk our economies, livelihoods, food security, health, and quality of life worldwide. Diverse and innovative measures are needed to reverse this decline and to restore healthy ecosystems.

This book looks at the current state of the world’s forests and progress towards more sustainable forest conservation globally. It also focuses on how Australia is managing and conserving its own native forests, with topics including forestry protection policies; tree-clearing and logging practices; the debate over native forest logging, including old growth forests; sustainable forestry practices, plantations and certification; and addressing habitat destruction and species loss.

Dugongs have high cultural value and are a valued source of food, medicine and artifacts and thus are an important species for coastal people. Dugongs also play a significant ecological role in maintaining coastal habitats. This publication will give an overview of the six dugong range states in the Pacific region and the measures they have in place to conserve and protect these pristine “ladies of the sea.” It will also highlight some of the events that have taken place since the Pacific Year of the Dugong was launched.

The following report and interim conservation plan is the result of a four-day intensive planning workshop for the Greater Bilby (Macrotis lagotis) involving 39 individuals that I would consider to be experts in their particular fields and representative of 29 organisations involved directly with, or supporting recovery of this vulnerable, iconic Australian marsupial.

The Bellinger River Snapping Turtle (BRST) (Myuchelys georgesi) is a freshwater turtle endemic to a 60 km stretch of the Bellinger River, and possibly a portion of the nearby Kalang River in coastal north eastern New South Wales (NSW). In mid-February, 2015 a significant mortality event was observed in BRSTs. Prior to the 2015 mortality event, the BRST was described as locally abundant, but now the BRST population is currently listed as Critically Endangered. Since the mortality event a disease investigation has identified a virus as the agent most likely to be responsib