From the emerald waters of the Great Barrier Reef to the vast stretches of the arid outback, Australia hosts over 1,700 threatened species, including koalas, wombats, numbats, tinker frogs, pygmy possums, and many more.
The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists has been fighting to stop deforestation, reverse the effects of climate change, and prevent endangered species from dwindling to extinction — a task that seems insurmountable.
However, in July, the group of 60 scientists published a 24-step action plan for what it would take to save the country’s threatened wildlife — and they even put a dollar amount to it: $7.3 billion annually for the next 30 years.
That’s less than two-thirds of the annual funds the federal government funnels toward fossil fuel subsidies.
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“The cost is less than 0.3% of our GDP. Given that nearly half of our GDP depends on nature, that’s a pretty sound investment,” Martine Maron, an environmental science professor at The University of Queensland, told the National Press Club.
The plan, “Blueprint to Repair Australian Landscapes,” has been a labor of love for The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists for the past six years.
Their plan anticipates that, if followed, the country could repair degraded landscapes, fix fragmented river systems, and “avoid most extinctions and recover almost all threatened species.”
“The key finding of our blueprint is that Australians don’t have to choose,” said Jamie Pittock, a professor of geography at the Australian National University. “We can afford to have both a healthy environment and a productive economy.”
A version of this article originally appeared in the 2025 Animals Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
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