Loss of Biociversity

What is happening in Australia is reflected in other countries. In October 1996 the IUCN - the World Conservation Union, put out a comprehensive report on the state of species. The report stated that a quarter of the world's mammal species are threatened with extinction and IN TEN YEARS, about half may be GONE. The IUCN has collected data on endangered species for more than 35 years. The IUCN states that previous figures for endangerment have been too low. For instance about a third of the 275 primate species examined are at risk - this is nearly three times the previously believed percentage.

AND WHAT HAS CAUSED THIS MASSIVE TRAGEDY?

George Rabb, the director of Chicago's Brookfield Zoo and a member of the survival commission, said the main factor threatening species survival "is fragmentation and degradation of habitats by humans. A secondary major factor is pollution."

The IUCN report has been called the most thorough scientific assessment of the state of the world's wildlife ever undertaken.