'Shocking' report lists devastation to Australia wildlife

A dehydrated and injured koala receives treatment after being rescued from a bushfire in 2019

Extinction Rebellion members protest in Melbourne Tuesday following the release of a dire environmental report

Australia's unique wildlife is being devastated by bushfires, drought, habitat loss and global warming, a government report said Tuesday, warning that more species are headed for extinction.

The five-yearly State of the Environment report prompted calls for dramatic action to reverse the "poor and deteriorating" state of flora and fauna depicted by scientists on land and at sea.

A failure to manage the pressures "will continue to result in species extinctions," scientists warned in the report.

"If we continue on the trajectory that we are on now, we will see more threatened species, we will see drier rivers, we will see degraded landscape, we will see reefs dying," she told journalists.

Plibersek, a member of the centre-left Labor Party that came to power in May elections, criticised the previous conservative government for failing to publish the report, which it had received in December 2021.

- 'Ecological bomb' -

The fires were an "ecological bomb ripping through southeastern Australia", Plibersek said.

Millions of hectares of primary forest had been cleared since 1990, the report said.

In five years, more than 200 plant and animal species of national significance had been added to the list of threatened species under Australia's environmental laws.

- 'Heartbreaking' -

"Sydney has lost more than 70 percent of native vegetation cover through development," the report said.

"The findings of this report are heartbreaking, and the leadership failures that have led to loss at this scale devastating," said WWF-Australia acting chief executive Rachel Lowry.

WWF-Australia said the report should be a "turning point" that lead to greater investment and stronger laws to protect Australia's wildlife and wilderness.

The "devastating" new report showed coasts and marine environments were deteriorating, the Australian Marine Conservation Society said.

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