There is movement on the environment in Canberra, with the announcement of details in the Nature Repair Market Bill, which was introduced to Parliament on 29th March. Its goal is to help Australia meet our commitments to protect at least 30% of our land and seas by 2030 - under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Details are provided here, and the Parliamentary progress and current bill are here. A short summary follows: Who will benefit: All landholders…
About $40,000 if you are a poacher! But, if you leave the animal to go about its daily routine and travel its historical pathways in peace it's value for services provided to human society is $1.7 m - a remarkable 40-fold increase on the commercial value of the elephant's tusks. So if we add up all the elephants, insects, kangaroos, birdies, sea creatures, grasses, trees, and ecosystems, what is their net worth? Around $127 trillion per annum according to a…
Notes: 1. This is an update to the original as published in the MPLN Newsletter of March 2020. 2. The assessment of carbon sequestration by vegetation is an imprecise area so this will not necessarily match the values assumed by the Government carbon credit scheme. The write-ups for both the Linking the Mornington Peninsula vision and each of its daughter biolink initiatives quite correctly focus on the benefits to local ecosystems and particularly to the free…
A recent court decision in India is interesting. As reported by the Times of India, the high court in the far northern state of Uttarakhand recently decreed that: “All members of the animal kingdom including birds and aquatic life have similar rights as humans” Animals throughout the state should be treated as “legal entities having a distinct persona with corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person.” “Citizens throughout Uttarakhand…