June 30, 2008

WildCountry and Climate Change

Real action on climate change

: * Click image to enlarge

While National Parks and large wilderness areas play a critical role, they alone will not guarantee the survival of wildlife if they are islands in a sea of destruction. We need a different vision for the future.

The CSIRO expects climate change to make Victoria warmer and drier, increasing the threat to wildlife and placing pressure on water availability and the agricultural systems which underpin our way of life.

There are two things we must do:

1. Limit the amount of climate change to under 2°C globally.

2. Reduce the impact of climate change by preparing now for whatever climate change does happen.

1. Reduce the amount of climate change that will occur

Reducing emissions from fossil fuels is critical, but just as important is the protection of native vegetation (especially our forests) as carbon banks.

Logging Victoria's native forests contributes to dangerous change in two ways;

1. Woodchipping destroys carbon banks - Victoria's native forests are one of the world's largest carbon banks. Protecting them is critical to reducing climate change because they capture carbon dioxide (CO2) and store it safely in the trees and soil. the bigger and older the forests are llowed to grow, the more carbon is safely stored in them and the surrounding ecosystem.

2. Woodchipping increases carbon pollution - Logging and soil disturbance from machinery releases dangerous CO2 into the atmosphere. 75% of the wood removed by logging ends up as woodchips to make paper - which releases its carbon within 3 years.

Tragically, Victoria's forests are being destroyed at a rate equivalent to 14 MCG's every day. This is despite the fact that we don't need to log native forests for woodchips - Victoria has Australia's largest plantation resource, more than enough to meet our needs.

2. Reduce the impact of climate change

1. Protecting what's left - protecting native vegetation both as carbon banks and habitat for wildlife in parks and reserves, including forests, grasslands, wetlands, coastal areas, oceans and reefs;

2. Reconnecting nature - creating biolinks by replanting areas with native vegetation. This will allow wildlife to survive climate change by giving them room to migrate and find refuge in new habitat, thereby avoiding extinction.

3. Removing threats to nature, especially:

feral animals such as deer, foxes and cats which kill and out-compete native wildlife, and destroy their habitats;
feral plants such as introduced salinity pasture grasses which escape into and destroy natural areas;
ending woodchipping in native forests and moving logging for woodchips into plantations.

4. Restoring the flows of nature (ie. protecting ecosystems) - improve management of National Parks and other areas so that they can better cope with the impacts of climate change, especially:

adopting bushfire management which protects people, property and wildlife
increasing environmental flows into rivers
reintroducing dingoes (Australia's top order predator) into their natural habitat to help restore the balance of nature.

If we achieve these three goals we will have come a long way towards implementing our WildCountry vision for Victoria. Realising this vision also requires us to draw in indigenous knowledge about how to protect nature and wildlife.

Co-operative work with indigenous communities can benefit nature and al Australians. For example, The Wilderness Society is working closely with Murray and Lower Darling Region Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) to develop strategies which protect nature, and meet indigenous aspirations for country.

Take action now

To get involved, or ask about our tours or schools program, please contact our Victorian Biodiversity Community Campaigner Jess Abrahrams

To keep up to date with the Land and Biodiversity at a Time of Climate Change White Paper, please sign up to Victoria Naturally’s ebulletin list. To subscribe just email your name to info@vnpa.org.au

Members of Victoria Naturally include: The Wilderness Society, Victorian National Parks Association, Australian Conservation Foundation, Environment Victoria, Greening Australia (Victoria), Bush Heritage Australia, Trust For Nature and the Invasive Species Council.

Learn more about:

Case study: 'The Great Southern Sanctuary' - an ambitious program to protect and restore nature in Western Victoria, southern NSW, and South Australia.
Case study: 'A bushfire action plan' which protects people, property and nature.

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