Biodiversity petition
In June 2014 conservation groups representing many thousands of people petitioned the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) about Australia’s failure to act consistently with the provisions of the Convention. The Secretariat was asked to take action, outlined in the Petition, to encourage Australia to hold to its commitments under the Convention. The Petition was also sent to the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO). In short, the replies said:
CBD Secretariat: “the Secretariat does not have a legal mandate to look into questions or allegations related to the compliance of an individual Party to its obligations under the Convention”
ANAO: took advice from the Environment Department which considered that “Overall…the Commonwealth is compliant with its obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity, while acknowledging that progress against some targets remains challenging”
Read the Petition and replies below.
Signing the CBD – where are the teeth?
June 2014
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was a great initiative back in 1992. But is it only a façade, providing cover behind which signatory countries can recklessly destroy the very values they have signed up to protect?
As a developed nation, Australia has no excuses. It signed the CBD in 1992 but since then its remarkable diversity of Gondwanic wildlife, plants and ecosystems have become critically endangered or even worse have had their existence on our planet snuffed out. (Read the complete ECO article below).
Documentation:
Petition to the Convention on Biodiversity
Petition in full with supporting documents
Flier circulated at Convention on Biodiversity
