MacGlobal warming 'will multiply pests'
July 29th 2008 12:54
GLOBAL warming will allow exotic plants and animals to invade vulnerable Australian ecosystems, the WWF conservation group has warned.
Warmer temperatures will allow feral animals and invasive weeds to gain access to cooler and higher areas where they have not previously been able to exist, according to WWF's Invasive Species Policy Officer Julie Kirkwood.
"Exotic species that haven't been invasive in these areas before are likely to have a sudden competitive advantage in warmer temperatures,'' she said.
Ms Kirkwood said Professor Ross Garnaut's draft climate change report had identified that warmer temperatures would favour pest and weed species at the expense of native plants and animals.
This would ultimately add to the high cost of invasive species to the Australian economy, already in excess of $4 billion, she said.
"The Garnaut report recognises that existing environmental stress factors such as invasive species need to be dealt with now to reduce the costs of climate change, and recommends the removal of introduced pest species as a key action to building this resilience,'' she said.
"Rodents, pigs, cane toads, dogs, cats and rapacious exotic plant species such as lantana and gamba grass have caused numerous extinctions in Australia over the last 200 years and continue to devastate Australia's ecosystems.''
Ms Kirkwood said the Federal Government must fully fund plans to address the threat of rodents on islands and in other vulnerable areas, and ensure the national Weed Spread Prevention Plan was fully implemented.
"WWF is also calling on the Australian Government to close existing loopholes in quarantine laws that allow the importation of potentially devastating species, such as the Savannah cat, which is a cross between a domestic cat and an African serval,'' she said.
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