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Biodiversity is life.  Biodiversity is our life.
The slogan of the International Year of Biodiversity

It’s time to put biodiversity back on the public action agenda:  because we depend on it, because we are part of it, and because we have the power and the responsibility to protect it. 

The Boobook Declaration arose from an informal meeting of groups and individuals concerned at the lengthening catalogue of bad news about collapsing ecosystems and recognising the impetus for action represented by the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity.  In little more than a month, the Declaration has gone from an idea to an action statement supported by many groups representing hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

Human induced climate change is a turning point.  It compounds existing threats to biodiversity.  But it also gives a new and urgent reason for protecting biodiversity and its stored carbon as a vital contribution to tackling climate change.  Communities across the country are working to protect biodiversity with innovative projects.  Their work needs to be complemented by a reinvigorated Australian Government effort.

The Boobook Declaration calls on the Australian Government to take four essential actions in 2010 to safeguard Australia’s rich and beautiful diversity of plants, animals and ecosystems.  The next steps depend on you:  look at the ‘what you can do’ page and take action.  Let us make the International Year of Biodiversity a year of transformation for Australia’s biodiversity.

Biodiversity 2010

International Year of Biodiversity. 
Convention on Biological Diversity. 

The State of Biodiversity Globally and in Australia

A safe operating space for humanity. A recent paper from Nature proposing biophysical planetary boundaries that humanity should not transgress. 
Major conservation policy issues for biodiversity in Oceania. 
Australia’s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy 2010-2020:  Scientists’ letter of concern. 
Lindenmayer, D. B. (2007) On borrowed time: Australia's environmental crisis and what we must do about it, edn. CSIRO Publishing, Camberwell.

Examples of innovation and action

Gondwana Link 
Habitat 141 – Outback to the Ocean 
WildCountry Vision 
Protect our Coral Sea 
Channel Country campaign 
Burning for biodiversity and cultural values in Kakadu
Gamba grass declared a weed
Woodland birds for biodiversity
Sustainable seafood guide
Quoll Seekers Network
Acquiring land for conservation reserves in Tasmania
Threatened species reintroductions
Mt Lofty Ranges Southern Emu-wren and Fleurieu Peninsula Swamps Recovery Program
Kaanju Ngaachi Indigenous Protected Area
Biodiversity Information Resources and Data

The boobook

Boobook recording by the late Len Jackson.  The duet was recorded in Barmah Forest Vic in October 1983.

The Boobook or ‘mopoke’ Ninox novaeseelandiae is the smallest and most abundant of Australia’s owls, living in all types of country where suitable nesting hollows exist.  It is an Australasian species, widespread across Australia and extending to New Zealand and parts of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.  Its repeated haunting call, symbol of the Boobook Declaration, is our call to action for biodiversity in Australia and our region. 
A boobook story

Image Credits