Australia’s biodiversity and climate change: summary for policy makers 2009

A strategic assessment of the vulnerability of Australia’s biodiversity to climate change, summary of a report to the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council commissioned by the Australian Government:

This document is the first such national assessment. Its main focus is on terrestrial biodiversity, which is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. It contains five key messages comprising an integrated package to support effective policy and management responses to the threat to biodiversity from climate change: (i) reform the management objectives for the future; (ii) strengthen a central strategy giving ecosystems the best possible chance to adapt by enhancing their resilience; (iii) invest in risk assessments to identify especially vulnerable species and ecosystems; (iv) build innovative and flexible policy and legislative frameworks, and reform institutional and governance architecture; and (v) meet the climate change mitigation challenge.