A new website, Threatened Australians, lets you know what species are under threat in your electorate – then encourages you to contact your MP to do something about it!

 

Have you noticed a distinct decline in birdlife around your home? Maybe that frog you usually see every summer has stopped dropping in. Or there are fewer butterflies than normal this year. Unfortunately, you’re probably not imagining it. 

Australia is seeing a drastic decline in biodiversity across the country, of both flora and fauna species, caused by a combination of deforestation, climate change accelerated natural disasters and invasive species. 

Are species in your electorate under threat?

In an effort to make the declining biodiversity within Australia a hot election issue, a new website, Threatened Australians, was launched last week. It allows you to search your postcode to see which species are under threat in your electorate and then gives you a bunch of ways you can help – including contacting your local Member of Parliament. 

And they couldn’t have made it easier to do!

As you click through, you’re provided with the contact info of your MP, tips on best practices for contacting them, plus a prewritten email that outlines the specific steps your representative needs to take to help create stronger protections for species in your area. Handy!

What else can you do to help?

Info is also provided via They Vote For You, to show how your local member votes in parliament when it comes to federal government action on animal and plant extinctions, as well as info on NGOs running conservation projects in your local area. 

You can also see how your electorate stacks up nationally, with a list of all 151 electorates in order from the electorate with the most threatened species, to the least – which is a bit distressing for people living in Lingiari and Durack!

The tool has been created as a non-partisan way of displaying the overwhelming biodiversity crisis Australia is facing and encouraging voters to help make it an important election issue. 

 

Feature photo by Marie-Laurence Paquette