September is Australia’s National Biodiversity Month which aims to promote how important it is to protect, conserve and improve our countries biodiversity.
So what is ‘biodiversity’? The definition of the word is ‘the variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat’. For example, a forestry plantation made up of one species of pine has very low biodiversity, there’s nothing ‘diverse’ in this ‘bio’! Whereas a natural forest made up of thousands of different trees, shrubs, climbers, fungi, moss, birds, insects, mammals, frogs etc. has a much higher biodiversity. Different animals and plants prefer different things to feed on and habitats to live in, so the more range there is, the more species can exist and be supported.
Our country’s biodiversity continues to be under threat from anthropogenic activities, resulting in species extinction, habitat destruction, ecosystems collapsing and pollution. For this reason, governments have put in place legislative frameworks to minimise impacts from new and existing activities on our environment and biodiversity.
Consultants, like us, need to be well-versed in legislative requirements and understand their practical application and the consequence if requirements are not met, so that we can appropriately advise our clients. Environmental Projects invest in ongoing professional development in this space and ensure we build a strong network of capable, experienced and respected specialist subconsultants to inform our projects.
We believe biodiversity is a crucial part of Australia’s identity and as environmental practitioners we will always try our best to work with our clients to protect it!