> Australian conservation groups forge new invasive species alliance
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Posted May 2009
Environment groups from across Australia have joined forces to launch the Stop Invasive Species Alliance, a coalition of 17 conservation groups calling on the Federal Government to usher in reforms equal to protecting the country’s environment from invasive species threats.
The alliance says invasive species are one of the top threats to global biodiversity and have been the number one cause of animal extinctions in Australia.
Launched on International Day for Biological Diversity (May 22), which this year focuses on invasive species, the alliance was initiated by the Invasive Species Council to foster stronger community action.
The alliance has also launched the SISA Declaration, which calls for greater Commonwealth leadership, legislative reform and funding “commensurate with the scale of the threats.”
One of the four areas of reform sought by the alliance is the mitigation of invasive species threats as part of measures to facilitate adaptation of biodiversity to climate change.
The interaction of climate change and invasive species receives a strong focus in the publication released for the International Day for Biological Diversity by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
“These two drivers of ecological change acting together could produce extreme outcomes. However, their joint effects on biodiversity loss have been little explored and poorly understood,” the booklet notes.
More information
IUCN information about International Day for Biological Diversity.
Download booklet.
Stop Invasive Species Alliance (SISA)
A new, formative webpage @ http://toxicwoodyweeds.wikispaces.com
now provides an overview to the nub of the expansive problem/s being experienced at-their worst(all 6 species of TWW) in and around Byron Shire(NSW), centre of ‘weed biodiversity’ in Australia, otherwise known as ‘weed city’ in this otherwise semi-tropical region; Camphor laurel invasion covers approx half-of Byron Shire, when full aerial mapping of the trees’ often extensive canopies is taken into account; Camphors’ are the biggest of the TWW’s often/mostly encouraging many of the other TWWs to grow-up underneath them e/g/ Privets, Wild Tobacco; all-3 have been both observed or recorded scientifically as being capable(in summertime) of killing native birds-e.g. in North America too(2001, in Poisonous Plants of North America).
Both ‘toxicity’ and ‘poisonousness’ of woody weeds are parameters currently not being taken seriously by NSW-Australian weed scientists & specialists ;as they consistently prefer to only take notice of toxicity
of waterweeds, and exclude the KNOWN FACT that elevated catrbon dioxide is contributing to a rise in toxicity of many woody weeds seasonally consumed in great amounts by wildlife e.g. UNE-Armidale weeds scientists have 100% resisted all attempts/suggestions to initiate research into ToxicWoody Weed species in northeastern NSW!
GO TO: http://toxicwoodyweeds.wikispaces.com (and ADD your contribution, PLEASE) J A Friend
Expert Adviser on TWWs, and E-Narcotics(‘environmental narcotics’)-after Overton C E(1901); and the U.S.EPA (1991 Translation ex-German); AUTHOR and Ecologist