Revised 9 February 2024
In 2023 the ACT threatened species list identified fifty-eight species, none of which were extinct.
Global warming is likely to cause the extinction of 330 to 1,000 local ACT species. The ACT’s Nature Conservation Strategy does not offer any strategy to address such a level of extinctions.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services reports that five per cent of species are at risk of climate-related extinction at 2°C of global warming. That fraction rises to sixteen per cent at 4.3°C warming.
The 2015 ACT State of the Environment report said that “The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) records 2316 animal species and 4322 plant species within a 10-kilometre radius of Civic”
5% of those species (2°C of global warming) is 332 species. 16% (4.3°C of global warming) is 1,062.
The ACT’s primary method for preserving our current 58 threatened species is the preservation of natural habitats in reserves. One of those reserves, the Namadgi National Park, occupies approximately 46 percent of the ACT’s land area.
The ACT Government’s 2019 Identifying biodiversity refugia report states that “Up to half of all known species may already be on the move in response to recent changes in climate, and impacts on threatened species are expected to be severe. The planet is undergoing a sixth mass extinction event with urgent action required to avoid grave consequences for human well-being.”
It is likely that, as the climate warms, some of the ACT’s nature reserves will cease to offer suitable habitats for the species that they were established to protect. If we are to preserve those species, we will have to either establish new reserves, or work out other ways to preserve them.
It is hard to imagine that that the ACT will be able to preserve an additional 472 species simply by creating additional reserves within the ACT.
The current ACT Nature Conservation Strategy naively claims that “the ACT is well placed to meet these challenges [i.e. climate change] as:
- the level of reservation of ecosystems in protected areas provides the critical building block on which to build further conservation efforts
- the ACT has significant scientific and research institutions located within its boundaries and makes good use of their expertise to drive innovative approaches to conservation
- the size of the ACT and its governance structures mean coordination and integration across government and cross border is simpler than in other jurisdictions
- the ACT has an engaged and informed citizenry who actively participate in conservation of biodiversity and citizen science.”
Leon's blog 