Climate change, biodiversity conservation, and the role of protected areas: An Australian perspective

authors’ addresses: 1 The Fenner School of Environment & Society The Australian National University Canberra, ACT 0200 Email: brendan. [email protected] 2* The Ecology Centre School of Integrative Biology University of Queensland St Lucia, QLD, 4072 *Corresponding author Email: james. jameswatson@gmail. com 3Department of Archaeology and Natural History College of Asia Pacific The Australian National University Canberra, ACT 0200 4 Current Address: Bush Heritage Australia PO Box 329, Flinders Lane, Melbourne, VIC 8009 Abstract. The reality of human-forced rapid climate change presents an unprecedented challenge to the conservation of biodiversity in Australia. In this paper we consider the role of Australia’s current protected area network in mitigating biodiversity loss across the continent. We do this by first examining the evolutionary history of Australia’s extant fauna and flora and, specifically, the reasons why species have persisted through major changes in climate during repeated glacial cycles, and through the massive climatic changes that occurred during the Miocene and Pliocene climate change events. We then review the current major threats to Australian native species, including inappropriate fire regimes, feral mammalian predators and herbivores, invasive plants, and habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation by land use activities (especially commercial logging, water impoundment and diversion, agricultural expansion, and the intensification of pastoralism). We argue that these current threats are interfering with the natural responses to climate change that native species have relied upon in the past, thereby undermining their resilience in the face of current, human-forced climate change.