A new international study published in the journal Nature found that Australia is among a group of seven countries who are causing around fifty percent of global biodiversity loss.
Using measures from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list, the study calculated that Indonesia has the worst record, accounting for 21% of global biodiversity loss, with Australia coming in second. The other main offenders were Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, China, India, and the United States (largely due to Hawaii’s influence).
The study also showed that biodiversity loss has a direct relationship with government spending on conservation efforts (or lack thereof) as well as other ‘human development pressures’ such as economic, agricultural and population growth.
Read more: Australia among seven nations responsible for more than 50 per cent of global biodiversity loss | Nature
