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LIVING PLANET MAGAZINE FOR SUPPORTERS OF WWF-AUSTRALIA ISSUE 04 WINTER 06

EXTINCTION RED ALERT WHAT PRICE CLIMATE CHANGE? CALL FOR FUTUREMAKERS CEO’s Address Contents Could this be the year the world gears up for the ﬁght against climate change? Let’s hope so. There is much debate about Australia’s options for combating Tracking Australia’s illegal wood 03 climate change and WWF is at the forefront of the push towards an affordable and achievable way forward. What price climate change? 04 In this edition we report on how Australians can dramatically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions without harming the Ask Dr Nias 06 country’s economy or breaking household budgets. As the climate debate rages, timely reminders on how the Call for Futuremakers 07 planet is faring for other species are also featured in this edition. A feature story on this year’s World Conservation Union Red List of Threatened Species shows there’s more reason than Extinction red alert 08 ever to engage in critical conservation issues. The growing number of extinct species shows that we simply WWF Action! 10 cannot afford to continue along the same path we’ve been taking. We are using far too many of the Earth’s resources and Get Active 12 health checks like the Red List show that the planet is sick and needs our urgent care. Our recently launched Future is Man Made campaign isn’t just a bleak statement about the artiﬁcial future for endangered animals – it’s a call to action. If enough of us commit to leading 03. more sustainable lives, we can secure a healthy planet for our future. If you’d like to learn more about what you can do in your TRACKING everyday life to make a difference, visit wwf.org.au/future and AUSTRALIA’S sign up to receive regular email updates. ILLEGAL WOOD As a WWF supporter, you’ve already shown you are a Australia imports Futuremaker – a unique group of Australians committed to hundreds of millions changing our planet for the better. Signing up to WWF’s of dollars of illegally Futuremaker email bulletin will harvested timber ensure you receive even more tools every year.

to help you become part of the © WWF-Canon/ Alain COMPOST sustainability revolution. It costs nothing, yet it could make the world of difference. 04.

WHAT PRICE CLIMATE CHANGE? A new study by WWF-Australia, AGL Greg Bourne, CEO and Frontier Economics has found the cost to Australians of reducing our LIVING PLANET greenhouse gas pollution. © WWF-Canon/ Chris Martin BAHR MAGAZINE FOR SUPPORTERS OF WWF ISSN: 1832-7893

Contact us at: Email: [email protected] 08. Post: Living Planet, WWF-Australia GPO Box 528, Sydney NSW 2001 RED LIST TO Phone: 1800 032 551 EXTINCTION Fax: (02) 9281 1060 This year’s World Production Conservation Union (IUCN) Living Planet Team: Charles Stevens, Claudia Cooney Red List of Threatened Design: Fresco Creative Species again shows Printing: Clarke Murphy Print Australia to be in the top Printed on Tudor RP 100% Recycled paper, produced with 100% pre-consumer and post-consumer waste ﬁbre that is sourced from printers’ waste, converting 10 countries for the waste and old milk and juice cartons. © WWF/ KLEIN & HUBERT number of plants and Cover Image: Carnaby Black Cockatoo - aka short-billed black cockatoo - female animals facing extinction. © Australian Picture Library/Stuart Andrews 2 LIVING PLANET WINTER 06 © WWF-Canon/ N.C. TURNER Is your garden furniture illegal?

It’s the last thing on most people’s minds when settling in for a Saturday afternoon barbeque but have you ever wondered where your garden furniture comes from?

What about your dining table or your of illegally harvested timber is imported into The Global Forest and Trade Network is an bookshelf? Australia imports hundreds of Australia annually, which represents around alliance of national networks all working to millions of dollars of illegally harvested nine per cent of our total timber imports. promote the responsible purchasing of timber timber every year, mostly in the form of products, and to create market incentives for outdoor tables and chairs, shelves and other Asia Pacific countries such as Indonesia, forest managers to improve forestry practices common household items. Malaysia, Burma and Papua New Guinea where it matters most. are believed to be major sources of illegally According to an Australian Government harvested timber entering Australia. Responsible forest managers can demonstrate report last year, around $400 million worth Worldwide, illegal logging is on the rise, and their high standards by securing certification in some African countries it is estimated that to the internationally recognised Forest up to 80 per cent of all harvested trees are Stewardship Council (FSC). taken illegally. “FSC certification tells consumers that the Illegal logging contributes to major furniture or paper products they’re buying environmental and social problems, have been made from timber or fibres including the habitat destruction of such sourced from well-managed forests,” species as Sumatran tigers, orang-utans, says WWF-Australia’s AFTN Coordinator, rhinos and elephants. Jana Blair.

Because illegal logging operators don’t “Companies that participate in the AFTN pay royalties to governments and go beyond just eliminating illegal timber by communities, local people are deprived increasing the amount of timber and paper of the economic benefits a legal timber they buy from forests independently certified industry can bring and are often kept as well-managed,” she says. locked in a cycle of poverty and exploitation. While the number of FSC certified timber Deforestation also causes soil erosion, which and paper products on the market today is has been blamed for the landslides and flash still small, WWF encourages consumers to floods that kill hundreds of people a year in start requesting that their furniture and other Indonesia and other parts of the Asia Pacific. timber products be sourced from logging operations that are not causing environmental As part of our battle to stem the global flow and social harm. of illegal timber, WWF has established the Australia Forest and Trade Network (AFTN) Look for FSC labelled products when – the national arm of the Global Forest and selecting your furniture and other timber Trade Network – as part of a partnership with items, or ask your retailer to stock Integrated Tree Cropping (ITC). FSC-labelled products. For more information visit wwf.org.au

LIVING PLANET WINTER 06 3 Stopping climate change is possible – and affordable!

Can we put a price on life? How much are the Earth’s plants and animals worth? What about health or quality of life? A new study by WWF-Australia, AGL and Frontier Economics has found the cost to Australians of reducing our greenhouse gas pollution.

If someone told you that with a weekly “We’ve found that real solutions to help payment of just 43 cents you could help manage dangerous climate change are to significantly reduce Australia’s affordable and achievable in Australia,” contribution to dangerous climate change, says WWF-Australia CEO, Greg Bourne. would you do it? “This new study discredits the myth that A new study by WWF-Australia, AGL and significantly reducing our contribution to Frontier Economics has found the cost to climate change is too expensive. We must Australians of reducing our greenhouse gas now move swiftly and urgently towards pollution to much safer levels could be as a clean energy future.” little as $250 per person, or just 43 cents a week over 24 years, when combined with Avoiding climate catastrophe energy efficiency measures. You might be surprised to learn that By following the plan laid out in the study Australians have one of the biggest energy Options for moving towards a lower emission footprints in the developed world. Most future, we could achieve a 40 per cent of our electricity comes from burning coal Avoiding reduction in greenhouse gas emissions like and we use more of it per capita than most further climate-related carbon dioxide (CO2) from the electricity other countries. catastrophe is possible but only if we act now. sector by 2030 – an achievement that would This means changing the way we generate As a consequence, we’ve been polluting be a great contribution towards solving the and use electricity. our atmosphere with far too much CO2 climate change crisis. over the past 200 years, making the layer A maximum rise in the average global o The plan shows that it’s possible and of greenhouse gases around the Earth temperature of 2 C is emerging as a critical affordable for Australia to meet the CO2 thicker, heating up the planet and changing threshold if the world is to avoid dangerous reduction targets identified by the world’s our climate. climate change. To stay below this threshold, leading scientists as critical if we are to avoid scientists around the world are calling for The effects of this are already being felt in the catastrophic impacts of climate change. 60 per cent reductions of greenhouse gases Australia. Prolonged drought has most of us from developed countries by 2050, which Carbon dioxide is the most common living under permanent water restrictions, our requires action now if it is to be achieved. greenhouse pollutant and forms much of species are disappearing at unprecedented the blanket of gases that’s building around rates as habitats change, rising sea levels the Earth and changing the weather. threaten to flood our neighbouring Pacific islands, and freak weather events like cyclones and droughts are occurring with greater ferocity than ever before.

4 LIVING PLANET WINTER 06 Stopping climate change is possible – and affordable!

If Australia and other nations continue their “business-as-usual” energy Mountain pygmy possum, one of the many Australian paths which lock us into high levels species currently threatened by climate change of climate change, we will lose many of our iconic species.

Around 90 Australian animals are at immediate risk from climate change. Initial studies are far from comprehensive – the actual number is likely to be much greater.

© Linda Broome The mountain pygmy possum is a threatened marsupial, only found in Australia’s snow covered alpine and sub-alpine region in Victoria and New South Wales. Climate change “We already know the horriﬁc consequences is the major contributing factor of the if we do nothing to stop climate change, and pygmy possum’s decline in numbers these include frequent and extreme weather a result, AGL has developed a well-balanced because the pygmy possum needs events and the loss of millions of species. portfolio of energy assets that is suited to a This will cost us a lot more than 43 cents gradual transition to a low emission future.” a snow depth of at least one metre a week,” Mr Bourne says. to provide adequate insulation during Australia’s environmental record is poor its winter hibernation. Climate change AGL’s General Manager for Merchant compared to many other countries, yet we fragments or thins the snow cover Power, Jeff Dimery, says companies like his are a nation that loves the outdoors and the are taking the climate change problem very plants and animals that make up our unique and exposes the pygmy possum to seriously, recognising that we have to change environment. the freezing temperatures. the way we generate electricity in Australia. Added to this, noxious weeds and “AGL has already begun to factor the cost What would you be willing pests such as blackberry thrive in of greenhouse emissions into business decision-making,” Mr Dimery says. to pay to protect something the new temperatures, and have so precious? impacted on native plants that the “In 2005, AGL explicitly accounted for possum relies on for shelter and food. this cost in the acquisition of renewable For more information about the study generating business Southern Hydro. As Options for moving towards a lower emission future visit wwf.org.au The possum’s entire range is now thought to cover just 10 square kilometres.

LIVING PLANET WINTER 06 5 Our resident expert on all things conservation Ask answers your questions Dr Nias

If ice cubes melt in a glass

of water, the level of water © WWF-Australia / Mark Rogers in the glass stays the same. Doesn’t this mean that melting ice in Antarctica or Greenland would have no impact on sea levels?

Amos Kanigher, Camperdown, NSW © WWF-Canon/ Stéfane MAURIS You are right that a melting ice cube has no impact on the level of water in the glass, just as a melting iceberg has no impact on sea levels. This is because it is already ﬂoating and has already displaced all the water it is What is cloud seeding and is it a viable solution to ever going to. But ice on land, such as that Australia’s water shortages? in Greenland or Antarctica, is a different Patricia Lindsay-Field, Mount Eliza, Vic story. If you put that into a sea that is already Cloud seeding is the process of releasing in Tasmania to generate increased rainfall rising because it is getting warmer (water particles of silver dioxide into the atmosphere to supply hydro-electric power. In the expands when it warms), then the level of the to trigger a rainfall event. Snowy Mountains it is being trialed for the sea will rise. It’s like pouring new water into production of snow for the ski industry, and the glass. Some estimations say the entire The CSIRO has shown that cloud seeding is increased water for Murray River irrigation Greenland ice sheet would be enough to raise effective only in a limited number of weather and hydro-power. global sea levels by seven metres, which conditions, and is most effective in cloud- would swallow up much of the coastline we covered mountain areas. The technique has In most of Australia however, cloud seeding have today. If the Antarctic ice sheet was to been used for many years has not been proven to be effective. In melt, on the other hand, sea levels could rise relation to Australia’s by as much as 65 metres. overall water supplies, CSIRO has said that “cloud seeding will never break droughts and cloudless skies will never produce rain”.

Proposals to seed clouds over Kosciuszko National Park have been vigorously opposed by conservation groups such as the NSW National Parks Association on the basis of potentially harmful impacts on endangered mountain species such as the mountain pygmy possum.

Visit www.npansw.org.au for further information. © WWF/ www.JSGrove.com

Send your questions about conservation and the environment to Dr Nias at: [email protected]

6 LIVING PLANET WINTER 06 © WWF-Canon/ Michèle DÉPRAZ

Ambassadors call for Futuremakers © WWF-Australia / Mark Rogers

WWF-Australia is grateful for the involvement of some of our new ambassadors – including Susie Maroney, Tracey Spicer, Brielle Davis, Isabel Lucas, The Shak and Yvette Duncan – helping us spread the word about creating a sustainable planet.

Susie Maroney Tracey Spicer At 15 years of age, Susie became the youngest Tracey is one of the most experienced news and fastest Australian to swim the English presenters and reporters on television. Channel. She was the first person in the world to swim from Cuba to the USA. “I’ve been lucky enough to see first hand the work of WWF, filming a documentary in “I am delighted and feel very privileged to Papua New Guinea. There are many WWF be part of WWF as I am passionate about volunteers and staff working on the ground the environment. After all it is so close to my all over the world to repair and restore fragile heart, it is my play area, my office and where ecosystems, damaged or destroyed by people. I spend most of my time. My sport of marathon I am passionate about the environment swimming has meant that I have swum not because for too long it has been degraded in only in oceans but rivers, dams, creeks and the name of profit. As a new mum, I want to any big puddle of water... so I have had a front preserve this wonderful world for the sake Susie Maroney Isabel Lucas row view of the environment and how we look of the next generation.” after it. I have always had a unique opportunity to be aware of the changing planet.” Brielle Davis Isabel Lucas Brielle is the youngest nominee ever for an Isabel plays the role of Tasha Andrews in Australian Golden Guitar Award. Home and Away.

“I support WWF because they help to bring “We have never been in a situation before awareness that it is crucial to both our where the choices and actions of one wellbeing and our environment’s wellbeing. generation have such an impact on our future. Although a lot of damage has already been We can’t afford to wait until governments and done there are so many things we can do leaders show some responsibility – it’s time that collectively can make the world of for individual action. I encourage everyone to difference. I’m so against lazy behaviour become a Futuremaker and to check out wwf. when it only takes a few minutes a day to org.au/future to learn how you too can make make a change. It’s about actually a difference.” doing something not simply talking Visit wwf.org.au/future and play a role in about it.” how our planet will look in the future, for all living things.

LIVING PLANET WINTER 06 7 © WWF-Canon/ Chris Martin BAHR; © WWF-Canon/ Jürgen FREUND; © WWF/ Frédy MERCAY Red List shows we are the generation that counts As a supporter of What you might not know is that we in The good news is that more and more people Australia have one of the worst records when like you are joining us in a growing network WWF, you’re no doubt it comes to securing the survival of our plants that’s working to secure the future of our passionate about and animals. This year’s World Conservation threatened species and to make sure others Union (IUCN) Red List of Threatened don’t join their ranks. protecting the world’s Species again shows Australia to be in the plants and animals. top 10 countries for the number of plants We can turn things around and ensure a and animals facing extinction. future where we don’t have to go to a zoo You’re also probably or pick up a book to see our wildlife, but we Although we’ve taken some strong measures need your help to do it. aware that every year in recent times to bring some of our the list of species threatened species back from the brink, land By visiting wwf.org.au/future and signing clearing, climate change, and the spread of up for WWF’s regular email bulletin threatened with extinction invasive species have taken a tragic toll on ‘Futuremakers’, you can play a part in our wildlife over the past 200 years. changing our planet for the better. In return around the world is we’ll give you monthly tips on how you can getting longer. According to the 2006 Red List, Australia reduce your ecological footprint, as well currently has more than 630 threatened as all the latest environmental news from species, with 65 species identiﬁed Australia and around the world. as critically endangered. Sadly, such recognisable species as the hairy-nosed Australia wombat, the mountain pygmy possum – a biodiversity heavyweight and the Carnaby’s black cockatoo are all Australia is considered globally as a on this year’s list. ‘biodiversity heavyweight’, which means “The Red List is like a thermometer that we up to 10 per cent of all life on Earth is found use to see what sort of health the planet is here. Because of this we have a special role in,” says WWF-Australia’s Senior Policy to play in preserving the planet’s species. Advisor, Andreas Glanznig. Most Australians are proud of our unique “What we can see by looking at this wildlife yet we have an extremely poor thermometer and others like it is that the record when it comes to protecting our plants Earth is sick and unless we take the steps and animals. Scientists estimate that in the necessary to restore its health it will continue ﬁrst 200 years of European settlement to decline.” 27 species of mammals, 23 species of birds, and more than 60 plant species have been driven to extinction.

8 LIVING PLANET WINTER 06 Red List shows we are the generation that counts

Today many of our species have reached It predicted that more than 10 per cent of all critical population levels, important habitats species could be driven to extinction if levels are still being destroyed, fragmented, of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere keep and degraded, and ecosystems are being rising due to the burning of fossil fuels over destabilised through climate change, the next century. For Australia, this means the pollution, invasive species, and other direct loss of thousands, possibly tens of thousands, human impacts. of species.

“There’s such an overwhelming mountain “Australia really has an important part to play of evidence from reports such as the IUCN in this global effort to stop species decline Red List that we can now see the damage as we are one of only 17 countries considered © DN Kraehenbuehl we’ve done and what will happen if we fail to be a biodiversity ‘heavy-weight’,” to act immediately,” Andreas says. says Andreas.

“In terms of stopping one of the biggest mass “We can reverse this trend towards species extinctions this planet has ever seen, we loss but only if we take massive and drastic really are the only generation that matters. action immediately to address issues It’s now safe to say that what we do in the such as climate change, land clearing, next 50 years will determine the fate of all the impact of weeds and pests, and the life on Earth.” loss of wetland habitat.” Acacia pinguifolia Climate crisis The sorts of disturbing statistics found in the IUCN Red List and other reports into South-west Australia was recently identiﬁed threatened species only tell part of the story. in an international study published in the A healthy environment isn’t just about the “With the loss of too many species comes scientiﬁc journal Conservation Biology as numbers – it’s also about the role species play the breakdown of the world’s life support a likely global hotspot for future species in a functioning ecosystem. extinction due to climate change. systems and this will have direct and tragic “It’s the small insects we don’t notice, the implications for humans as well.” The study – funded by WWF, Conservation plants they live on, and the variety of nature Read more about the IUCN Red List International, the David Suzuki Foundation that keep ecosystems healthy,” says Andreas. and the Natural Sciences and Engineering of Threatened Species at wwf.org.au Research Council of Canada – looked at “They make life on Earth possible through 25 areas around the world that contain large the creation of nutrients that maintain healthy concentrations of plants and animals. soils, the breakdown of waste products into less harmful substances, the pollination of plants, and the maintenance of clean water and air.

LIVING PLANET WINTER 06 9 WWF Action! Highlighting our work here in Australia and around the globe

Island rats update In the last edition of Living Planet we told you about our submission to the Australian Government requesting that rats on Australia’s islands be listed as a key threat to native species such as the albatross.

We’re happy to announce that the Government has responded favourably and island rats are now listed as a key threat under the national Environment Protection and Biodiversity

Conservation (EPBC) Act. This will open the way for eradication programs aimed at removing © Australian Fisheries Management Authority rats from important island native animal habitats.

In addition to their devastating impact on albatross populations, rats have caused the extinction of two sub-species of birds on Norfolk Island and five sub-species of birds on Lord Howe Protecting Island. They also continue to threaten the white-bellied storm petrel and Norfolk Island green parrot, as well as several unique lizard species. species in the For more information on WWF-Australia’s work to fight the threat of invasive plants and animals, visit wwf.org.au Southern Ocean WWF-Australia is working with Peregrine, the Antarctic travel company, to protect the Borneo’s medical Southern Ocean, one of the richest marine treasure trove environments in the world. Funding from Peregrine will allow us to A new WWF report has identified plants in the work towards establishing a network of jungles of Borneo that could help treat or even cure marine protected areas (MPAs) covering deadly diseases such as cancer, AIDS and malaria. © WWF-Canon/ Alain COMPOST 10 per cent of the Southern Ocean by 2012. But the report also says these potentially life-saving plants are threatened and need to be protected. Well-managed MPAs enable exploited According to the report, a compound present in the marine species to live longer, grow bigger plant Aglaia leptantha, discovered in the Malaysian and become more abundant. This gives state of Sarawak, has been found to effectively kill populations a higher resilience when 20 kinds of human cancer cells, including those that facing environmental disturbances and cause brain and breast cancer, and melanoma. fishing pressure.

Other plants found in Borneo’s rainforests have been MPAs also help threatened albatross found to treat malaria, HIV and tuberculosis. More populations by protecting key foraging sites than 400 new plant species have been discovered in Borneo in the last 25 years, and many other and removing the threat of dangerous ﬁshing species are waiting to be found and studied. practices, such as longline ﬁshing, in areas where there is a high mortality rate. But all these discoveries could be lost if the rainforests of Borneo are not adequately protected. Visit wwf.org.au for more information Read more about WWF’s work in Borneo at panda.org on MPAs.

10 LIVING PLANET WINTER 06 © WWF-Canon/ Martin Harvey; © WWF-Canon/Carlos G Vallecillo; © Viewfinder; © WWF-Canon/ Yifei Zhang Saving sharks with magnets © WWF-Canon/ Cat HOLLOWAY Thousands of sharks, some highly threatened, could be saved from fishing lines thanks to the winning entry of this year’s WWF-sponsored Smart Gear Competition. Searching Every year thousands of sharks die after becoming snared on hooks set by commercial © Australian Fisheries Management Authority fisheries to catch tuna, swordfish and other species. The problem has pushed some for the great sharks to the brink of extinction, with several species down by 90 per cent. However, Michael Herrmann, a research associate at the US-based company Shark desert skink Defense, has won the 2006 Smart Gear Competition for an innovation that promises The Threatened Species Network has teamed to significantly reduce shark bycatch. up with the Central Land Council and senior Herrmann found that placing strong magnets just above the hooks on long lines can Aboriginal women and school children in repel certain shark species and save them from being accidentally snared. Central Australia’s Western Desert region to search for populations of the great desert skink. The Smart Gear Competition was created by WWF-US in 2004 to find solutions to the problem of bycatch. The great desert skink, also known as warrarna or tjakura, is mostly found on For more information go to panda.org Aboriginal lands making the involvement of Indigenous groups crucial to the recovery Witnessing climate change in of this threatened species. The species is important culturally with a Russia’s Far East number of dreaming sites dedicated to the warrarna across the Western Desert region, The lives of coastal dwellers on Russia’s and was formerly a significant food source Chukotka Peninsula have been shaped by the for desert people. natural environment over many generations. Thanks to the tracking skills and traditional In this unique part of the Russian Arctic, © Vladilen Kavry/WWF-Russia knowledge of the Anmatyerr and Luritja traditional skills and knowledge are passed women, a whole new population of great down through the years, resulting in a deep desert skinks was discovered in the area, understanding of the landscape. expanding their known range by about With the support of WWF-Russia, Vladilen 150 kilometres. Kavry, a local Chukotkan hunter, traveled to One old hunter from the village of Vankarem For more information about the seven coastal communities to gather residents’ on the peninsula’s arctic coast noted that Threatened Species Network visit perceptions of climate change. He gathered winter was beginning a full two months later wwf.org.au comments and observations from people than usual. across the surveyed region on changing and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. Read more stories from climate People said they’d seen shorter winters and witnesses around the world at later springs in recent years. panda.org. LIVING PLANET WINTER 06 11 © Darren Jew © Darren

Here’s some good starting points:

• Join a growing network of like-minded people. Sign up to our regular Futuremakers email bulletin by visiting wwf.org.au/future. It’s free and you get monthly tips on how to live a sustainable life. Send the link to your friends and spread the word!

• Another way you can reduce your energy footprint is by switching to green power. Your electricity supplier can tell you about their green power options. If they don’t have a cleaner power option, consider switching to a supplier get that does. • Install low-flow shower heads in your home. You can still enjoy a hot shower but you won’t be wasting valuable water and you’ll help protect vital habitat for freshwater species, active which are some of Australia’s most threatened. • Get off stand-by! The typical home has as many as 30 pieces of electrical equipment plugged in at any one time, with It’s easy to feel discouraged in the standby energy accounting for about 10 per cent of electricity face of so many stories about climate use, according to the Australian Greenhouse Office. So, if you’ve finished using your microwave, the computer or change, species loss, over-fishing and watching the television – turn it off at the wall! other forms of environmental For more information on what you can degradation. But there’s do to live a more sustainable life, go to a growing army of people wwf.org.au/future. leading sustainable lives who are determined to ensure a healthy future for our planet. If we all follow a few simple and easy steps we really can turn things around.