State of the Environment (SoE) reporting themes

Biodiversity

This theme summarises the condition of Australia's living resources and highlights the challenges of management in the context of human dependence on biodiversity for ecosystem services.

A commonly used historical reference point for State of the Environment (SoE) and related assessments is the biodiversity understood to exist immediately before European settlement of Australia (approximately 1750)…. In this report, we consider, where possible, changes in biodiversity over the past 15 years (the period of the previous national SoE reports), but also reference current conditions to those thought to exist in 1750.

…Biodiversity indicators for national SoE reporting were developed in the first (1996) and subsequent reports. While these remain valid, the indicators used since 1996 have differed from report to report, due largely to the lack of information available. There is no standardised national set of biodiversity indicators, and different states and territories use different indicators. In this report, we have considered most of the indicators used in previous reports, and used that to inform the higher level assessment summaries included in each section. (SoE 2011, 8 Biodiversity - 1.3 In this chapter)

Key findings

SoE 2011:

Biodiversity has declined since European settlement.
Most pressures on biodiversity that arise directly or indirectly from human activities appear to still be strong.
Despite promising investment by all jurisdictions in addressing the main pressures on biodiversity, pressures are not being substantially reduced, nor is the decline in biodiversity being arrested or reversed.
The major future drivers of change – climate change, population growth, economic development and associated consumption of natural resources – must be managed carefully if a sustainable relationship between biodiversity and human societies is to be achieved.
Data on long-term trends in biodiversity are limited, making it difficult to interpret the state or trends of major animal and plant groups in most jurisdictions.
Australia can improve its biodiversity management significantly.
Australians cannot afford to see themselves as separate from biodiversity.

For more details see SoE 2011 - Biodiversity: Key findings

SoE 2006:

Australia has a legacy from past actions, and biodiversity will continue to decline in some areas before current investments either arrest or reverse change.
Biodiversity has become increasingly vulnerable because of both loss of extent, and ecosystem resilience, aggravated by current climatic variability and possibly by enhanced variability.
Pressures on biodiversity are uneven and reflect the level of development and at times the spread of novel biota.
The future reduction in land clearance represents a reduction in pressures on biodiversity.
Much needs to be done to increase the sophistication of biodiversity management and its integration into natural resource management.
Biodiversity management needs to continue to move to a landscape-based model with adaptive management applied equally to productive and protected lands. This is because while the national reserve system could expand, it cannot ever fully conserve all of Australia's biodiversity.

For more details see SoE 2006 - Biodiversity: Key points