Up there with notorious destruction hotspots



[ad_1]

EASTERN Australia has been listed as a deforestation hotspot in a recent WWF report.

It was the only place in the world to make the list.

The Living Planet report, produced by WWF every second year for the past 20 years, states: Without healthy natural systems, researchers are asking whether continuing human development is possible.

Global populations of vertebrate species have declined to 60 percent since 1970 with more than 20 percent in the last decade, to the extent that they are disappearing from the wild in NSW by 2050.

The report appraised 11 deforestation hotspots, where broadscale clearing had occurred at problematic levels since 2010, and where deforestation was expected to continue in the next decade. Eastern Australia was the only location in the world to make the list.

"It is a wake-up call for our notorious forest destruction hotspots such as the Amazon, Congo Basin, Sumatra and Borneo," said the chief executive of WWF Australia, Dermot O'Gorman.

Eastern Australia has been listed as a deforestation hotspot.

Eastern Australia has been listed as a deforestation hotspot. WWF

The Living Planet report says clearing for livestock is the primary cause of deforestation on the east coast. Unsustainable logging is also a concern.

Ocean habitats are also in the range of the world's largest coral reefs. Over the past 50 years mangroves have declined by 30 to 50 per cent.

Plastics in the marine environment is a widely documented problem in the marine environment, from the shorelines and surface water to the deepest parts of the ocean, even at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The WWF report warns that if action is not taken to reduce the flow of plastics in the sea, models predict that will be found in the digestive tract of 99 per cent of all seabird species by 2050.

The report uses the term 'Great Acceleration' as the only event we are experiencing in the 4.5 billion-year history of the planet with exploding human population and economic growth driving unprecedented planetary change through the increased demand for energy, land and water.

The report states that extinction is a prerequisite for the development of the disease.

WWF is calling for a global deal for nature – a set of collective actions together with a roadmap for targets, indicators and metrics for reversing nature loss scenarios for land-use change, dietary shifts, sustainable harvesting as protected areas.

[ad_2]
Source link