Endemism, Biodiversity and Conservation
Let’s just talk about plants. A plant species which is endemic to a particular country occurs there and nowhere else on earth. Some countries are blessed with a high percentage of endemic species and some have just a few. The country with the highest number of endemic species is Brazil, but Australia has the highest percentage of endemic species; 88% of our plants occur nowhere else. This is because Australia has long been isolated from the rest of the world, has a great diversity of habitats and has genera like Acacia and Banksia which have evolved many species.
So how much do we know about our Australian endemic plants? This is important as there are international agreements such as the Convention for Biological Diversity which rely on countries knowing about the status of their own species. How many of them are endangered by climate change and land use impacts on small populations? Some lucky species like the Wollemi Pine have been very vulnerable but now are secure in collections and gardens around the world. A threat assessment is needed to know the status of each endemic species. Some countries know very little about the status of their species, with few threat assessments done, but others such as South Africa, China and the United States have assessments for more than 70% of their endemic plant species. Australia, despite having laws for protecting biodiversity from threats, has threat assessments for only 39% of its endemic plants. How can we conserve our precious biodiversity if we don’t know?
This discussion above is based on a paper by Rachel V. Gallagher in Australian Plant Conservation (2024) 32(4): 3-6.
On Mount Majura’s lower slopes we have a threatened ecosystem, the Box Gum Grassy Woodland, and all the main Eucalyptus species in that woodland such as Yellow Box and Blakely’s Red Gum are listed as vulnerable on the RedList. Is the ACT legislation adequate to conserve this vulnerable ecosystem? We think not. A threatening process for our reserves is the invasion of species of exotic and non-local native plants, such as the woody weeds we continually attack in our FoMM working parties. Yet the new Urban Forest Act 2023 fosters the growth of invasive trees up to the boundaries of the reserves. The Nature Conservation Act 2014 is currently under review. You can read FoMM’s submission here. |
