{"id":984,"date":"2012-07-08T19:44:45","date_gmt":"2012-07-08T09:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=984"},"modified":"2012-07-26T19:49:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-26T09:49:00","slug":"public-may-have-final-say-in-extinction-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=984","title":{"rendered":"Public may have final say in extinction choices"},"content":{"rendered":" <\/span>\r\n\r\n
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Hugh Possingham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nWhich native species will survive for future generations is a dilemma that can be solved by society, not society, a leading ecologist has said.\r\n\r\nHugh Possingham, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) at the University of Queensland, said that world-first Australian research was showing that it was now possible to estimate how many species can be saved based on how much was spent on protecting them and their habitats.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cFor the first time we are starting to get a handle on the return on investment from conservation,\u201d he said.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cHowever, this also clearly shows that, at current levels of funding and current rates of extinction, we won\u2019t be able to save everything.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cIt will come down to a public decision about what kind of Australia we really want, which native species we should strive to keep \u2013 and how many we feel we can afford to let go.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\nMelbourne University’s Michael McCarthy and colleagues have shown that an annual national investment of just $10m a year could reduce the number of threatened Australian bird species from around 270 to 230 over 80 years, he said. Even then a few species would be lost.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cThis is the first clear evidence, probably worldwide, how much it costs to save species. The amount of $10m is roughly three times what we currently spend nationally on bird conservation.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cIt seems like a trivial amount to secure Australia\u2019s avifauna. It comes down to a decision whether we lose a bird a decade \u2013 or a bird every century.\u201d <\/span>\r\n\r\nIn a situation where environmental funding remains tight it will be necessary for Australians to take hard decisions, Possingham said.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cAre we wasting scarce money trying to save some species from extinction? Should we instead put more effort into saving those with better prospects of survival? <\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cThese are not questions that science can answer: they come down to our values as a society.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cWe now know what it will cost to protect Australia\u2019s last region with an intact native fauna,\u201d Possingham said.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cThe question we must decide is whether we are willing to make the necessary investment.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\nGiven the decisions ahead, Possingham called for Australians to learn more about their native land and its animal inhabitants.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cWe all need to open our eyes more to the wonderful Australia that surround us. Europeans and Americans are amazed to see the wildlife that we take for granted.\u201d<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Which native species will survive for future generations is a dilemma that can be solved by society, not society, a leading ecologist has said. Hugh Possingham, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) at the University of Queensland, said that world-first Australian research was showing that it was now possible to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[809,750,806,807,221,302,810,808,805,55,583],"class_list":["post-984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-arc","tag-choices","tag-environment","tag-environmental-funding","tag-extinction","tag-funding","tag-hugh-possingham","tag-michael-mccarthy","tag-public","tag-research","tag-warning"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":402,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":402,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Which native species will survive for future generations is a dilemma that can be solved by society, not society, a leading ecologist has said. Hugh Possingham, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) at the University of Queensland, said that world-first Australian research was showing that it was now possible to estimate how many species can..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"809":{"name":"ARC","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=arc"},"750":{"name":"choices","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=choices"},"806":{"name":"environment","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=environment"},"807":{"name":"environmental funding","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=environmental-funding"},"221":{"name":"extinction","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=extinction"},"302":{"name":"funding","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=funding"},"810":{"name":"Hugh Possingham","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=hugh-possingham"},"808":{"name":"Michael McCarthy","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=michael-mccarthy"},"805":{"name":"public","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=public"},"55":{"name":"research","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=research"},"583":{"name":"warning","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=warning"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":988,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions\/988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}