Researchers Calculate the Cost of Restoring Australia’s Degraded Ecosystems
Researchers propose a AU$41 billion nationwide plan for habitat restoration to prevent species loss that will pay for itself through carbon sequestration revenue.
The health and diversity of Australian ecosystems are in decline. The environment is under mounting pressure from land clearing, altered fire regimes and invasive species. Australian ecosystems are also extremely vulnerable to climate impacts with extreme temperatures and fires expected to become more frequent and more severe.
Australia’s environmental legislation and policies have failed to tackle these mounting issues and there is a lack of adequate funding for environmental management, threatened species protection and ecological restoration.
Targeted restoration of degraded ecosystems has great potential to alleviate these problems. A promising approach is the restoration of non-primary agricultural land to lift native vegetation coverage. But how much would it cost to repair Australia’s degraded ecosystems in this way? And could it be achieved without comprising food production?
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