Australia State of the Environment report finds rapid decline in native species

More mammals have been lost in Australia than any other continent in modern history, with the actual number of extinctions likely to be significantly higher than official records indicate, the report found.

While recent reviews of monitoring and recovery plans found rehabilitation procedures to be lacking, Australia continues to record one of the highest rates of species decline among OECD countries.

The report, which makes for sobering reading, was completed as part of an Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 Act requirement and delivered to the former minister for the environment Sussan Ley last December.

Despite significant pressure on the previous government from environmental groups to publish the report, it has only now been made public by Labor's new Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, who has labeled its findings "shocking".

Conducted over four years and comprising the work of 37 experts from across Australia, the report found Australia currently lacks a framework to deliver holistic environmental management, with immediate action required to combat existing threats to declining species.

Many Australian birds were found to be suffering from population decline and were at risk of extinction, with threatened populations declining by an average of 60 per cent between 1985 and 2018.

The future of reptiles looks similarly grim, with many Australian species showing decline and the first Australian reptile extinction recorded in the past decade. Reptile experts suggest up to 11 snakes and lizards could be extinct by 2040. About half of Australia's 25 freshwater turtle species were also found to be in serious population decline.

A recent assessment of Australian frogs found 18.5 per cent as either extinct or threatened, with the majority of threatened frog species along the east coast of Australia and the Great Dividing Range.

Its authors found all environmental outlooks were adversely affected by the increased pressure of climate change. Invasive species, ecosystem modifications - such as bushfires - and agriculture were the top three threats affecting the largest number of threatened plants and animals.

Clearing has been implicated in the listing of 60 per cent of threatened species, with 93 per cent of land habitat cleared between 2000 and 2017 not referred to the Australian government for assessment.

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Woodlands have been extensively cleared, the report found, with only 53 per cent of casuarina forests and woodlands and 67 per cent of original eucalypt woodlands remaining. From 2015 to 2019 almost 290,000 hectares of primary forest (more than 71,400 Melbourne Cricket Grounds) were cleared and a further 343,000 hectares of regrowth were recleared.

Helen Murphy, Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Land and Water, co-authored the chapter on biodiversity.

Dr Murphy said the report reflected how extreme weather events and climate change had become key drivers of deteriorating trends and abrupt changes to species distribution and ecosystems over the last five years.

Experts predict the number of listed threatened species to increase substantially in 2022 as a result of the 2019-2020 bushfires, with another seven Australian mammals and 10 Australian birds extinct within 20 years unless management is greatly improved.

Dr Murphy said while the report touched on the immediate effects of the 2019-2020 bushfires, the flow-on effect and indirect impacts would only be realised in years to come.

With pressure now mounting on the new Labor government to lock in emissions reduction targets and take further environmental action, Dr Murphy said the release of the report was a great first step.

"There's obviously, a lot of information in the report for the new minister to process and I'm sure that's going to take some time," she said.

"But yes, I am optimistic that there'll be progress made."

The estimated cost of recovery of threatened species in Australia was found to be more than $1.69 billion per year, compared to the $49.6 million the Australian Government currently allocated annually to targeted threatened species spending.

The Australia Academy of Science has responded to the report's release by advocating for the establishment of a new national information system led by an independent agency to manage the nation's biodiversity data.

Academy President, Professor Chennupati Jagadish said only through such an agency would Australia actually understand and be able to choose steps to slow down or reverse biodiversity loss in Australia's environment.