PDC: updated environment policy

Land management and ecology
A healthy and vibrant ecosystem is crucial for our quality of life, and ultimately for our future on this planet. Sadly, Australia has among the worst extinction rates of any continent despite our low human population. This partly reflects well-known problems with invasive species, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change. Less well understood are the policy failures that have made these issues much harder to address.

Environmental work can take significant time and planning. Rewilding of degraded ecosystems is complex, requiring long-term active management to prevent new waves of invasive species from attacking vulnerable and plant and animal populations. Species restoration is similarly complex, often requiring vulnerable species to be protected in sanctuaries, or on islands and fenced-off peninsulas until their numbers can recover, with recovered populations serving as a base for gradual re-introductions across the wider ecosystem. The short term funding cycle and regular cancellation of environmental programs make it difficult to achieve long-term progress in such complex and long-term work.

Pirate Party Australia believes a longer-term approach is needed. Rather than drip-feed funding year by year, environmental grants need to be scaled up to the challenge and provided over longer time-frames to enable proper planning and co-ordination. Pirate Party Australia would establish an ecology fund based the best scientific estimates of resourcing needs. The fund would be overseen by experts, and would have a mandate to provide long-term grants for scientific research and community-driven environmental work. Endowments should be set aside to support a permanent regional workforce to engage in large-scale rewilding and habitat restoration around Australia. Pirate Party Australia would also ensure that successful initiatives such as the Indigenous Rangers program are expanded and funded permanently, ending a cycle of insecurity and ensuring the cultural knowledge of our first people is properly valued and preserved.

For less than the the price of a new submarine fleet, Australia could ensure that our priceless ecology is restored to health and preserved for future generations. We simply need the political will to make it happen.

Pirate Party Australia advocates the following reforms:

Implement a biodiversity strategy and long-term funding model.
 * Appoint an expert panel to estimate resource needs for an integrated set of environmental programs encompassing habitat restoration and large-scale 're-wilding', preservation of endangered species, scientific research including 'blue sky' initiatives, specific needs for areas such as the Great Barrier Reef, and other initiatives driven by communities and conservation groups.
 * New responsibilities would also include strategic regional planning and reporting on national environmental performance. The commission would also develop enforceable national, regional, threat abatement and species level conservation plans.
 * Replace year-to-year grants with a 20 year funding model, with options to top-up in the future.
 * Establish an endowment to expand and permanently fund the Indigenous Rangers Program.

Strengthen existing environmental protections.
 * Expand the environmental oversight of the federal government to cover mining approvals, water resources, protected areas, land clearing, climate change and air pollution.
 * Establish an Environmental Protection Authority with independent statutory status to areas overseeing environmental approvals, inquiries, monitoring, compliance and enforcement.
 * Increase biosecurity funding by $20 million each year to prevent more invasive species from entering the country.
 * Grant farmers an explicit right to refuse exploitation of coal and coal seam gas deposits on land they own.
 * Expand and improve national parks.
 * Increase national park thresholds to cover 15% of land in Australia, with a representative sample of at least 80% of regional ecosystems protected in each bio-region.
 * Review national park legislation and remove restrictions on volunteerism and community engagement in improving parks.
 * Amend Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to insert specific requirements for accountability and monitoring of Recovery Plans.

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