THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
SPEECH
11 October 2024
I would like to thank the Australian Land Conservation Alliance for having me this morning, on the home of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.
I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land and pay my respects to Elders past and present and acknowledge any Indigenous people with us today.
And I’d also thank the ALCA Board including the Chair Vic Marles, and I’d also like to acknowledge the many special guests in the room – particularly those who have travelled from overseas to join us.
Since I became Environment Minister, I have seen first-hand the many wonderful examples of the great work of landholders managing and conserving nature.
The work you do helps protect our nation’s unique landscapes and care for our native species.
Many of the most important habitats for our native species are on privately owned land.
Partnering with landholders is one of the important ways we protect the places and species Australians love.
This is one of the reasons we’re establishing the world’s first nature repair market.
It will have scientifically robust, transparent rules for establishing baselines, repairing nature and measuring the outcomes.
There’ll be a national, public register of nature repair projects, so that everyone can have confidence that projects are delivering what’s expected.
People will be able to easily verify and track the outcomes of a project, who owns it and the claims being made about its benefits.
We’re making sure that investments in nature repair – whether by governments, business or philanthropic organisations – are protected long term.
Protection, via legislation, with obligations that attach to the land, regardless of changes in ownership, enforced by a regulator.
At the last meeting of State and Territory Environment Ministers, I flagged the priority development of a permanent protection method.
So that a nature repair market can support permanent protection and management of land.
This will enable the nature repair market to become, in effect, a national scheme for conservation covenanting.
This new method will enable conservation projects to be recognised as protected areas or OECMs – an Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures – and counted towards Australia’s 30 by 30 target.
Some of you would have attended our Global Nature Positive Summit earlier this week and heard the enthusiasm from investors keen to invest in high quality nature repair projects – without green wash. That’s what we’re facilitating.
Australia’s Strategy for Nature sets out what we’re going to do to implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
It includes six priority national targets, including protecting 30 per cent of land and 30 per cent of seas by 2030, and three enablers of change (also based on the GBF targets).
We’re blitzing our 30 by 30 target when it comes to oceans.
I’ve just announced that our Government is signing off a massive expansion of Heard and McDonald Islands Marine Park.
Australia now protects more ocean than any other country on earth. It means more than half (52 per cent) of Australia’s oceans are now under protection.
And we are also proposing to strengthen protections for 73,000 km2 of Australia’s south-east marine parks – an area bigger than Ireland.
Meeting our 30 by 30 target for land is more challenging.
I’m pleased that more than 22 per cent of Australia’s land is currently protected for conservation.
That leaves eight per cent of land, roughly nine times the size of Tasmania, to be protected or conserved in just under five years.
Getting to 30 per cent will take a sustained effort from all governments working closely with private interests.
So today I am proud to launch the National 30 By 30 Roadmap.
The roadmap will coordinate national action to protect and conserve the remaining eight per cent of land.
It sets out the principles to guide our collective efforts.
It raises awareness of programs that support 30 by 30. And it outlines a way to track our progress.
The roadmap recognises the important contribution of private landholders and conservancies.
And this roadmap will inform our investment strategy for the nature repair market.
This investment strategy will be put together and published by Environment Information Australia.
ALCA is a strong advocate for an investment strategy for the nature repair market.
Together with a method for permanent protection, this will help channel government, private sector and philanthropic investment towards projects that make the biggest difference for nature and our 30 by 30 target. Noting that in protecting 30 percent of our land, we want the areas to be comprehensive, adequate, representative (CAR).
Private and philanthropic investment needs to grow but it’s not the only tool in our toolkit. Government funding plays and will continue to play a central role.
Last month we announced funding for more than 115 projects that will restore and protect ecosystems and tackle invasive species.
The Australian Alps, for example, will benefit from an $8.2 million funding boost to control feral horses, deer and pigs, better manage weeds and repair precious wetlands.
This is how we make sure threatened species like the southern corroboree frog, which live in these alpine regions, don’t slide further towards extinction.
We know how much damage invasive species can do, especially feral cats.
Every year feral cats kill more 1.5 billion native Australian animals a year.
Cats have contributed to two thirds of Australia’s mammal extinctions and threaten more than 200 species, including the greater bilby, numbat, and Gilbert’s potoroo.
That’s why we’re investing over $60 million in 55 projects to halt their path of destruction.
The projects will deploy high-tech solutions like traps equipped with artificial intelligence.
You have all heard of the Felixer grooming trap – it uses AI to detect cats and sprays them with a toxic gel.
The Felixers are evolving to be even more useful.
We also now have traps that send text messages to managers when they are triggered.
We are supporting the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board to use these traps to control cats on the Dudley Peninsula.
They are working in partnership with the local community and farmers to deliver long-term benefits for the island’s unique threatened wildlife, like the Kangaroo Island Echidna.
This week I hosted the world’s first Global Nature Positive Summit.
Thank you to everyone in this room who attended and helped make the Summit so productive and enjoyable.
The Summit highlighted the value of collaboration and partnership for protecting and restoring nature.
It showcased the innovation, traditional knowledge and the on-ground work underway in Australia, the Pacific and around the world to restore and repair nature.
Participants agreed Indigenous leadership is key to properly caring for nature.
One of the main focuses of the Summit was how to change economic settings so nature is factored into economic and business decisions.
Together with Summit participants, I know all of you in this room would agree: our shared goal should be an economy that is net zero and nature positive.
Thank you for everything you do towards this important goal.
Keep up the good work and thank you for your work to protect and restore nature.
Thank you.
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