The Earth is in the throes of its “sixth great extinction event” and Australia and the Pacific are becoming the worst regions for the destruction of animals and plants, a study has found. Australia's white possum could be first victim of climate change. Photo: EPA

By Bonnie Malkin in Sydney Land clearing and overlogging of forests have been highlighted as the greatest threats to land-based flora and fauna in the Oceania region, according to a review of 24,000 scientific papers. Ecosystems in Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia need urgent and effective conservation policies, or the region’s already poor record on extinctions will worsen significantly, it said. The study, published in the journal Conservation Biology, said that since records began, Australian agriculture had changed or destroyed half the woodlands and forests of the country. More than two-thirds of the remaining forest has been degraded by logging. Throughout Oceania more than 1200 bird species have become extinct and climate change is threatening to worsen the crisis, it warns. ”Our region has the notorious distinction of having possibly the worst extinction record on Earth,” said Richard Kingsford, professor of environmental science at the University of NSW and one of the 14 authors of the study. ”This is predicted to continue without serious changes to the way we conserve our environment,” he said, noting that half of Australia’s mammal extinctions were directly or indirectly caused by humans. The report identifies six causes driving species to extinction, almost all linked in some way to human activity. It pinpoints destruction and degradation of ecosystems as the main threat, with loss of habitats being linked to 80 per cent of threatened species. …

Australia and the Pacific ‘becoming extinction hotspots’