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- Department of Energy, Water, Heritage & the Arts
- bhpbilliton
- Caring For Our Community
- EarthWatch Institute Australia
- Council of Heads of Australian Museums
- Online Zoological Catalogue of Australian Museums
- Atlas of Living Australia
- International Year of Biodiversity
- Australian Science Teachers Association
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Why Blitz
There are many plants and animals still to be discovered by science. There are an estimated 566,398 species in Australia - but three-quarters of this biodiversity is yet to be identified. Forty-five per cent of continental Australia and over 90 per cent of our marine area have never been comprehensively surveyed by scientists.
No country has documented the biodiversity that exists in their reserve system in this way, let alone across an entire continent. This impedes conservation and resource planning and makes a response to global challenges such as climate change difficult. A national snapshot of Australia’s reserve system will enable more strategic acquisition of new reserves, enable world-leading management of existing reserves and allow preparation of climate change responses. The technology, information and partnerships required to assess the adequacy of Australia’s reserve system at a national scale have not existed – until now.
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Scientists at Work
A full team of scientists will conduct six major biological surveys each year throughout Australia, discovering new species, making new records of species and reporting on these. Surveys will be conducted in the approximately 300 reserves that have been added to the National Reserve System within the past 15 years with Australian Government funding.
A trial survey has been conducted in the northern end of the Western Australian Wheatbelt. Further surveys are scheduled for Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales in 2010.
A crucial part of Bush Blitz is the follow-up science - taxonomy.
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Partners
Bush Blitz is a globally unique cross-sector partnership drawing on the knowledge and expertise of government, non-government organisations, industry and science to document the biodiversity of the oldest continent on Earth and provide an international benchmark for biodiversity knowledge.
Bush Blitz is an initiative of:
- the Australian Government, through the Australian Biological Resources Study and Caring for Our Country
- BHP Billiton
- Earthwatch Institute Australia
- the National Scientific Reference Site Facility, based at the University of Adelaide
Bush Blitz also involves State and Territory conservation, primary industry and agricultural agencies, Australia’s museums and herbaria, CSIRO, leading universities, the Atlas of Living Australia and the Australian Science Teachers Association.
More on partners.
Bush Blitz is Australia’s largest nature discovery project -
a three-year multimillion dollar partnership to document the plants and animals in hundreds of properties across
Australia’s National Reserve System.
In this International Year of Biodiversity, Bush Blitz is expected to uncover hundreds of new species and provide the baseline scientific data that will help us protect our biodiversity for generations to come.
more...