Image: D.J. Bray [CC BY 3.0 AU], via Fishes in Australia
New Australian environmental agencies are welcome but they “will be stuck supporting a broken framework”
The Australian Academy of Science has said that delays in setting national environmental standards could hamper efforts to preserve species.
In evidence to a Senate inquiry into the national “extinction crisis” on 17 April, Christopher Anderson, director of science policy at the academy, said that new environmental agencies “will be stuck supporting the current—broken, inadequate—framework”.
He said there had been a “delay” to some recommendations of a 2020 review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, including establishing national environmental standards.
“Australia’s biodiversity monitoring, data collection and curation standards are insufficient,” he told the inquiry.
Gaps in Australia’s scientific capabilities are hindering management and conservation, and many species are likely to become extinct before they have even been identified, he said. “What we do not know, we cannot protect.”
Yalmy galaxias (pictured), a species of freshwater fish, was mentioned in the hearing as a practical example. “We don’t know if that species is still there. We don’t know if that species has gone extinct or not,” said James Trezise, director of the national Biodiversity Council.
Anderson said his academy welcomed the proposed creation of a national Environment Protection Agency and a data agency called Environment Information Australia, announced by environment minister Tanya Plibersek on 16 April. Environment Information Australia will publish ‘state of the environment’ reports every two years.
“The academy endorses establishing a data agency,” Anderson said. “A national biodiversity information system, overseen by an independent agency, is crucial for integrating data, supporting decision-makers and ensuring public trust supported by a national environmental data standard.”
Limited capacity
Other witnesses at the hearing echoed Anderson’s concerns that the planned new agencies would not be effective without underlying standards.
Celine Steinfeld, director of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, told the committee that the 2020 review had found that “legally enforceable national environmental standards that set the environmental outcomes required were the highest priority and recommended that this reform be implemented immediately”.
“We are disappointed that the government has made the decision to further delay introducing the crucial components of the reform package that are needed to actually deliver this ‘maintain and improve’ outcome for matters of national environmental significance,” she said.
Alex Hill of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition said that “in splitting up the reforms and implementing some pieces such as an Environment Protection Agency without the stronger and tougher national environmental standards and without stronger protections alongside—there would be limited capacity for this new body to genuinely improve decisions for matters of national environmental significance for the climate and for threatened species”.
The Senate committee’s report is due by 28 June.