Over 800 ecosystem restoration experts from across the globe are gathering in Darwin for the 10th Society on Ecological Restoration from Tuesday 26th to Saturday 30th of September, the largest conference of its kind ever held in the Southern Hemisphere.
In the last 200 years, Australia has lost 34 mammals to extinction – more than the rest of the world combined – and since the national environmental law was introduced in 1999, the list of threatened species and ecological communities has grown by more than a third.
This type of loss occurs all around the world and has led to an international biodiversity crisis. Stopping biodiversity and habitat loss is necessary and relatively straightforward, but is insufficient alone.
Restoring lost habitats is also essential to address these species losses and to make agriculture and fisheries more resilient to climate change, but this is far less straightforward.
A large Australian contingent will attend the SER Conference led by members of the Restoration Decade Alliance (RDA). The RDA incorporates 21 peak environment organisations who are active in restoring ecosystems (see here: https://restorationdecadealliance.org/)
The Federal Government signed on to the international Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework earlier this year. In doing so, it committed Australia to restore 30% of our degraded ecosystems (on land and sea) by 2030.
The RDA has held a series of workshops to outline an agreed path to a national restoration plan and restoration targets to help deliver on this commitment. A final workshop is to be held at the SER Conference, and with the advice of international delegates, “A Roadmap to Ecosystem Restoration Success” will be released at the Conference on Friday the 29th of September.
About us:
About Restoration Decade Alliance
The Restoration Decade Alliance is a network of non-profit environmental restoration groups in Australia who have joined forces to support the goals of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
