NatureMapr App
Updated versions of the NatureMapr data collection app are now live for both iPhone and Android!
If you would like to do the citizen science thing, or help locating important weeds for FoMM to tackle, this may be just the thing for you. It’s easy to use. Search in the App Store or Google Play for NatureMapr or go to the NatureMapr website and click on the appropriate button at the top of the screen. The app lets you take photos of a sighting and upload them to NatureMapr from within the app.
You don’t need to use the app to contribute to NatureMapr. You can take photos making sure you have the location setting turned on and upload them from your gallery using the Add a sighting tab on the NatureMapr website.
Conservation Challenges
Among all the politics of the failure of the federal government to pass its environmental legislation at the end of 2024, perhaps you missed some important achievements it did make in partly meeting its commitments to the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). In October it released Australia’s Strategy for Nature 2024-2030 as our National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) which is required under the GBF. You can download this document here. It sets goals and objectives with measures to be assessed to gauge progress; these are aligned with the targets of the GBF. It has been endorsed by all the environment ministers, state and territory as well as federal.
Before the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties (COP16) held in Colombia in October, Australia submitted 9 national targets based on the NBSAP to the GBF Secretariat. These national targets incorporate 13 of the 23 GBF targets. The NBSAP itself say “Not all Global Biodiversity Framework targets are mapped. The enablers of change support action against all Global Biodiversity Framework targets and Australia will report against all 23 targets.”
Enablers of change are methods that support the delivery of the transformational change required to meet Australia’s national targets. There are three enablers. One is ensuring that nature is included in all legislation and decision making at all levels. Another is that decision making about nature should be equitable and involve first nations people. The third is that environmental data should be accessible to support decision making. This third target is to be a role of Environment Information Australia, which is to be established in the legislation which is yet to be passed in parliament.
The Biodiversity Council is concerned that the NBSAP does not mention GBF target 18 – the identification and elimination of biodiversity harmful subsidies – and it has produced a report on the level of federal government subsidies which are impacting biodiversity. This has important implications for how the NBSAP can be funded, as the subsidies they identified are about 50 times greater than what the federal government currently spends on nature.
So, what happened at COP 16? It did not get a lot of mention in the media. A report from The Nature Conservancy outlines what was achieved in Colombia. Discussions are to resume this February in Rome, according to the official website. These discussions will largely be about financing.
Rewilding – part 1
Nature’s Ghosts – The World We Lost and How to Bring It Back. Sophie Yeo 2024 Publisher Harper North
For a fascinating read try this recently published book. It’s in the ACT library.
The focus is Britain and Europe generally but there are snippets from other parts of the world, and lessons for all of us. Based on modern science, archaeology and pre-history this book reveals the secrets of past environments, going way, way back to before the last ice age, to times when the only people in Europe were Neanderthals, not Homo sapiens. It looks at the impacts of humanity on wild landscapes, and how persistent some impacts are over millennia. We cannot remake our landscapes to recreate such ancient wilderness where people were a minor component of the environment; there are stories about choosing appropriate baselines and avoiding some assumptions when attempting rewilding.
Rewilding – part 2
Emus for Tasmania?
See this story from The Conversation.
Emus in the ACT? Yes, but only west of the Murrumbidgee. For great photos see Canberra Birds. |