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Biodiversity

January

A red-necked wallaby in its natural Australian environment.

England’s Sherwood Forest, where the wallabies roam

A spate of unlikely sightings in the East Midlands sends the Financial Review’s correspondent on a hunt for his furry fellow Aussie expats.

Crows don’t think humans all look alike. In fact, they never forget a face.

If you think you can hold a grudge, consider the crow

Sometimes the only way to avoid attacks from a murder of crows is to move a long way away. Bribing the birds can also work.

December 2024

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek (left), West Australian Premier Roger Cook and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Plibersek’s EPA a threat to mining, claims WA premier

An unapologetic Roger Cook said: “We’ve made our position in relation Nature Positive absolutely clear.”

November 2024

Tanya Plibersek, Roger Cook and Anthony Albanese.

Why Albanese kneecapped Plibersek

The PM, pushed by WA’s Roger Cook, made a captain’s call to deny Peter Dutton the chance to paint Labor as anti-WA or anti-mining.

October 2024

Protesters in front of the Federal Court as it heard a claim against Santos. The company was successful and has restarted work on the Barossa gas project.

EDO expert on Indigenous culture says he’s ‘just a white fella’

The Federal Court ultimately rejected the arguments made by the Environmental Defenders Office and allowed Santos to develop the $5.8 billion gas project.

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Gina Rinehart, the billionaire executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting, has long been critical of environmental regulation.

Gina Rinehart slashes plans for next big mine as ESG factors hit

The billionaire businesswoman has dramatically scaled back the proposed Mulga Downs iron ore project by 40 per cent to overcome environmental concerns.

Koalas are listed as endangered in NSW, the ACT and Queensland.

Queensland’s koala farmland fund hits fund-raising trail

Upscale Funds Management is targeting $6.6 million for its Koala Farmland Fund 2.

July 2024

South32’s Worsley mine in Western Australia.

Environmental rules threaten survival of South32’s Worsley refinery

More than $1b was wiped off the value of South32 as it cut production guidance and warned forest protection rules threatened the future of a WA alumina refinery.

June 2024

Kate Turner of First Sentier says that while the importance of nature is intrinsically understood, it’s harder to account for it in a financial sense.

Nature the next frontier but boards lack skills

Biodiversity is critical for maintaining a liveable planet, but a deficit of skills at the board level is proving a roadblock in accounting for its value.

The Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP) are located in the United States, along the coast of northern California.

Why we should embrace tall-tree tourism

Only 34 per cent of the world’s surviving forests are old-growth ones, and many are under threat. If California’s Redwood National Park is anything to go by, there is hope, however.

May 2024

Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek introduced the new environmental laws on Wednesday.

Plibersek’s new environment laws friendless

Business, conservationists, the Greens and key crossbenchers have all criticised Labor’s plans for a new Environment Protection Agency.

April 2024

“You have to make a choice between cats and wildlife,” says Katherine Moseby of Arid Recovery.

These researchers are training native wildlife to fear feral cats

If Australia’s vulnerable species are to survive, they need to learn how to spot danger.

Graeme Samuel: “We’re going through a complex process.”

‘Take a chill pill’: Graeme Samuel urges calm on environment law delay

Former competition tsar Graeme Samuel has urged conservation groups to “take a chill pill”, and for miners to stop talking “rubbish” on plans to overhaul federal environment laws.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has come under fire from all directions over nature positive reforms.

Internal Labor group chides Plibersek on nature-positive ‘vacuum’

A Labor green group says reforms to environmental laws are an Albanese “election commitment” on an issue Labor members have campaigned for nearly a decade.

February 2024

A giraffe at Murchison Falls National Park in northwestern Uganda on Jan. 13, 2023.

There may be millions more species than we realise

As DNA testing creates new ways of defining species, scientists can’t agree on how many there are.

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December 2023

No more oil and gas production can be developed around the rivers and floodplains of the Lake Eyre Basin in Queensland.

Santos bears brunt of Queensland ban on gas projects in Lake Eyre Basin

Days before Christmas, the state has ruled out future oil and gas production in the rivers and floodplains areas in the ecologically important region.

ACSI chief executive Louise Davidson warns that funds expect it to be “challenging” for executives to get bonuses rather than “business as usual”.

Make it harder for CEOs to get big salaries, bonuses: super funds

Executives should only get bonuses for outperformance, and not for business as usual, the Australian Council for Superannuation Investors says.

November 2023

Australian banks have $47bn of loans for livestock agriculture, the sub-sector with the biggest impact on nature.

Directors urged to get advice as nature risk turns liability

A groundbreaking legal opinion says company directors who fail to consider the toll on nature could be in breach of their duty of care and diligence obligations.

October 2023

University of NSW senior lecturer Megan Evans says an offset market won’t help restore nature.

Biodiversity credits aim to help repair nature

The government is seeking to establish a nature repair market, with biodiversity credits creating a new asset class for investors.

September 2023

New disclosures standards on the impact of corporate activity on nature are expected to be integrated into global accounting rules.

New business guidelines aim to help firms account for impact on nature

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures released its final rules on nature risk, which will force banks to understand the effects of lending.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/biodiversity-jpe