Dominguez-Martinez, R.M.; Roberson, L.; Gephart, J.; Wilcox, C.; Sant, G.; Klein, C. Environmental Law Reform Needed to Manage Trade of Australia’s Threatened Marine Species. Preprints2024, 2024040242. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0242.v1
APA Style
Dominguez-Martinez, R.M., Roberson, L., Gephart, J., Wilcox, C., Sant, G., & Klein, C. (2024). Environmental Law Reform Needed to Manage Trade of Australia’s Threatened Marine Species. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0242.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Dominguez-Martinez, R.M., Glenn Sant and Carissa Klein. 2024 "Environmental Law Reform Needed to Manage Trade of Australia’s Threatened Marine Species" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0242.v1
Abstract
The protection and regulation of international trade of Australia’s native species is legislated by its Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999. In response to overwhelming evidence that the Act is ineffective at protecting biodiversity, the Australian Government is currently reforming its environmental laws. One problematic component of the Act is in cases where threatened species interact with multiple regulatory and management frameworks, such as commercially fished marine species that are traded as seafood. Here, we analyzed international seafood trade data and found that Australia exports four threatened fish species listed under the Act and additional species acknowledged as globally threatened. In light of our analysis, we have three recommendations for Australia’s new environmental legislation: 1) apply the same precautions to commercially harvested species as to other threatened species; 2) review the status of all threatened species annually; and 3) assess species listed on global conservation conventions. These recommendations will help ensure that Australia’s marine biodiversity is protected, despite its commercial value.
Keywords
seafood sustainability; marine policy; biodiversity conservation; seafood trade; international trade; threatened species
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Environmental Science
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
,
,
,
,
,
