Biodiversity Conservation to Avert Mass Extinction, Ecosystem Collapse & Global Economic Risk (Short
Channel: The Royal Society of Victoria
Date: 2021-06-04

We are drowning in bad news. Ecosystems collapse and species loss is being documented across the planet, with profound existential ramifications. Habitat degradation and loss remains the key driver of biodiversity loss, but climate change and invasive species promise to compound the damages we have wrought.

Professor Brendan Wintle provides with a short, cheerful summary of the global extinction crisis, including Australia’s prominent and expanding role in species’ extirpation. To celebrate the hopeful, Brendan explores the crucial role that ecologists play in co-designing and implementing solutions to the extinction crisis in partnership with private land conservation organisations, Indigenous land managers, developers, and governments. Science, civil society, business and policy makers can work constructively to bring the transformative change needed to ‘bend the curve’.

Brendan provides positive examples of some great collaborations that seek to keep our unique species, ecosystems and cultures intact, and will finish with a suite of practical measures that society and individuals can pursue to bring benefits to nature and people.

Produced with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program. Full presentation is available at https://youtu.be/1qrwKSY0RU4 .