Page 2614 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 21 September 2022
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
are being banked in an ongoing collaboration with the Australian National Botanic Gardens, and planning for the translocation of the Canberra spider orchid is underway. The Botanic Gardens has had a breakthrough with the first ever-known successful germination of a seed from the ACT endemic and endangered Tuggeranong lignum, and they are now undertaking more formal germination trials for the ACT government.
The Botanic Gardens are raising 900 endangered small purple pea plants, in partnership with the ACT government over the next three years. This will help to supplement existing wild populations and establish new wild populations in environmental offset areas and nature reserves. The ACT government is working with the Botanic Gardens, several other partners and a strong network of Canberra volunteers to secure threatened plant species in the sub-alpine regions severely impacted by the 2020 bushfires. The project team are working to secure seed and plant collections of the dwarf violet and 11 other threatened species in Namadgi and Kosciuszko as insurance against their extinction and to uncover the germination cues on how to grow these species.
Engagement and education is also important. Looking after our threatened species also means helping the community to understand and experience native species and ecosystems and what is needed to protect their long-term future. The Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary—run by a partnership between the ACT government, the Woodlands and Wetlands Trust and the Australian National University—provides a safe haven for a range of threatened species in the ACT, as well as opportunities for research and communication about the restoration of threatened woodland ecosystems. To help people better understand and experience our native species and environments, the Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary partnership is preparing to open Wildbark, the Woodland Learning Centre in Throsby.
In conclusion, I am extremely proud to present these examples of our work to demonstrate that the ACT government is committed to ensuring the long-term conservation of our threatened plants and animals and to show that we are dedicated to enabling the ACT community to experience, learn and engage with nature. Our unique species are part of our landscape health and part of our community’s wellbeing and culture. These threatened species need our ongoing help to address the range of threats and the extinction crisis, to get them back on the road to recovery and thriving into the future. We have dedicated teams of rangers, ecologists and support staff who are passionate about their jobs and work really hard to deliver better outcomes for our threatened species.
The different futures that lie ahead also depend on our collective ability to address climate change impacts for the sake of our plants and animals and the ACT community. We are also very fortunate in the ACT to have many expert scientists, both in universities and in the community, as well as other keenly interested citizen scientists and conservation groups that are fully engaged in their drive to stop the decline and support the recovery of our threatened species.
I present the following paper:
Threatened Species Day—7 September—Ministerial Statement.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video