Hundreds of senior scientists from across Australia and the world have united to express alarm at Australia’s increasing rate of clearing of native vegetation, through releasing a declaration against habitat destruction.

The EIANZ supports this declaration and the priority actions proposed, which include:

• Developing and implementing a strategy to end net loss of native vegetation, and restore over-cleared landscapes.
• Recognise all biodiversity, not just threatened species, in policy and legislation for the management of native vegetation.
• Establish clear, transparent and repeatable national reporting of clearing of native vegetation.
• Use rigorous biodiversity assessment methods for assessing clearing requests, accounting for all potential impacts, including cumulative and indirect impacts.
• For unavoidable losses of native vegetation, require robust and transparent offsets that meet the highest standards and improve biodiversity outcomes.

The EIANZ notes the important roles that environmental practitioners play across government, academia, consulting and industry to develop and implement policy, undertake assessments and deliver programs to protect and manage biodiversity across Australia and New Zealand.

Read the full declaration here >