Kevin Thiele, The University of Western Australia and Jane Melville, Museums Victoria Research Institute
After more than 300 years of effort, scientists have documented fewer than one-third of Australia’s species. The remaining 70% are unknown, and essentially invisible, to science.
Planting trees can sometimes be a carbon-offset box-ticking exercise, but reforestation is a long-term commitment that supports communities, promotes biodiversity and tackles the climate emergency.
When something is free, people use a lot of it. Economists are urging governments to compute values for natural resources – wildlife, plants, air, water – to create motives for protecting them.
Research into fox scents suggests a complex form of ‘chemical communication’ underlies the animal’s behaviour. The findings could help improve pest control methods and protect native wildlife.
The Chagos Reef was vibrant before the heat wave.
Ken Marks/Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Even if they can’t save us from climate change, society still depends on forests.
Wildfires are the inevitable consequence of three factors coming together at the same time: an ignition, the weather and fuel.
Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The fynbos vegetation that historically clothed the slopes of Table Mountain is highly inflammable. This has been worsened by the spread of alien trees that burn more intensely than the fynbos.
Clayoquot Sound, part of the Tla-o-qui-aht territory, has been the site of numerous protests against logging the forest. Meares Island was declared a Tribal Park in 1984.
(Shutterstock)
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University