Australia’s peak body for nature conservation has welcomed today’s announcement from Environment Minister Murray Watt that the ‘River Murray downstream of the Darling River, and associated aquatic and floodplain systems’ will gain critically endangered status under federal law.
The listing will give these ecosystems the highest level of legal protection under the EPBC Act. Major new developments must now consider impacts on the whole ecological community, including critical habitats and key species, not just individual species or wetlands.
The Australian Land Conservation Alliance said the listing, whilst long overdue, was a welcome if sobering recognition that these ecosystems are on life support and are in desperate need of further investment to ensure their recovery.
Today’s announcement also saw the listing of the wetlands and inner floodplains of the Macquarie Marshes that eventually drain into the Darling River.
“Australian Land Conservation Alliance members steward and protect larges areas of land up and down the Murray Basin system.”
“The Lower Murray River ecosystem is the lifeblood for many regional economies and livelihoods across eastern Australia. Unfortunately, the risk of environmental collapse will only increase without significant investment in these ecosystems. The impacts of collapse would be catastrophic, and cascading, with fewer fish breeding events, reduced waterbird migrations, degraded floodplains, and collapsing food webs across multiple catchments.”
“The listing is a step in the right direction. However, these threatened systems won’t recover without sustained, committed funding to pull them back from the brink, and coordinated action from all levels of government. We urgently need long-term Federal Budget investment in the recovery of Australia’s threatened species and threatened ecological communities, with Federal funding currently scheduled to end this financial year. The health of Australia’s most important river system and the communities that depend on it need real, long-term commitment.”
