Recommended sites

United Nations Environment Program: “Currently, governments spend US$1 per person a year on nature reserves. At least US$50 per person is needed each year to save endangered species. Once a species is lost it is gone forever.”

World Conservation Union (IUCN): “...people still misunderstand and ignore the goods and services that nature, biodiversity and ecosystems provide to us. For example, 16,119 species of animals and plants are threatened with extinction... The importance of well-functioning ecosystems in helping reduce poverty and improve livelihoods, societies and economies is increasingly clear to scientists. ”

World Conservation Union Red List: “The Union's 2006 Red List of Threatened Species identifies 639 Australian species as threatened with extinction, with 65 listed as critically endangered.”

Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage: “Australia is home to more than one million species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. About 85 per cent of flowering plants, 84 per cent of mammals, more than 45 per cent of birds, and 89 per cent of inshore, temperate-zone fish are endemic - that is they are only found in Australia.”

Nova: Science in the News: “There are two main threats to the continuation of species in Australia, and these threats have already caused extinctions. They are:

• loss of habitat - this may result from climate change, activities of humans or natural events
• the introduction of alien species which prey on and compete with native species for food and habitat

However, not all species under threat of extinction are being protected, nor is there sufficient funding to do so. Deciding how to allocate funds for threatened species programs is a difficult problem.”

Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania: “We have over 600 species currently listed in the schedules of Tasmania's Threatened Species Protection Act 1995. Many more species are in danger of becoming included on these lists... Today there are 20 recovery teams in operation on Tasmanian species (both plants and animals).”

World Wildlife Fund (Australia) - Threatened Species Network : “This year, on the 70th anniversary of the Tasmanian tiger's extinction, WWF is spotlighting the impact of climate change on Australia's threatened species.The global conservation organisation is calling on Australians to make a choice - to try to rescue our native plants and animals or remember them as species we've allowed to disappear forever... 
According to the CSIRO, between 90% and 100% of core habitat for Australian vertebrates would be lost under a 5°C rise in global average surface temperatures, which some scientists predict could occur by the end of the century... 
WWF is calling on Australians to take action to prevent dangerous climate change and its impacts and protect our threatened plants and animals. Actions include switching to green power, becoming more energy efficient and walking, cycling or catching public transport instead of driving.”

The Wilderness Society: “Land clearing is the single greatest threat to Australia's biodiversity. Every year in Australia more than half a million hectares of bushland are bulldozed, chained or poisoned to 'improve' land for agriculture. Unfortunately, Australia destroys more native vegetation than any other developed nation... 

In a world undergoing great change and environmental challenges, our natural world desperately needs a new approach - one that listens to and learns from nature. We need a change of perspective, from individual species and local areas, to the fascinating ways in which the continent works as a whole.”

Countdown 2010: “Tasty food and essential medicine, fresh air and clean water, protection from natural disasters and the pleasure of walking through a forest in spring time: Without biodiversity, our lives would look a lot more bleak and barren... Over the last few years a number of international agreements have promised to save biodiversity by 2010.”

Links

School Groups

Get your school involved!

• Memorial: The Silence of Extinction (add to this Tasmanian artwork)
• National Threatened Species Day or Hands on for Habitat
• World Environment Day
• The Sustainable Living Competition
• The Environment Challenge
• The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development