The theme for this year’s International Day of Forests (21 March) is ‘forests and health’. It provides an opportunity to reflect on the important role that forests play in our lives and whether our national environmental laws, which are currently under review, are doing enough to ensure that future generations...
The challenges facing Victoria’s native wildlife are immense.
Our wildlife are in the gun-sights of rapidly accumulating extinction and climate crises. Our laws are hindering and enabling the problem, not confronting it or overcoming it.
The Victorian Environment Minister announced a review of the Wildlife Act 1975 (Vic) in early 2020. This announcement occurs in the context of egregious incidents of the killing of protected native wildlife and controversy over the effectiveness of the Act.
The Wildlife Act has not previously been reviewed. Establishing a clear critique of the existing Wildlife Act is necessary in order to move to what should replace it, including what wildlife law should be aiming to do and the means by which it undertakes that task.
