Australia: Fires, a Turning Point for Climate and Species Protection?

The devastating bushfires in Australia have triggered worldwide horror and a wave of solidarity. They are also dominating the start of a year that was actually dedicated to the preservation of international biodiversity .

«Australia’s inferno, which represents a catastrophe for flora and fauna, is the loud wake-up call for industrialised nations to change their business-as-usual climate policies and initiate the long-overdue course correction», says Astrid Fuchs of Pro Wildlife. «Without climate protection, habitat protection — and therefore species protection — is impossible! Climate and species protection must be placed at the very top of the political agenda.»

Australia: A Unique World of Species Burns

While koalas are currently dominating the headlines, thousands of other species found only in Australia are also affected by the fires, including kangaroos, platypuses, grey-headed flying foxes, small short-nosed bandicoots, cockatoos, lace monitors, rare skinks, and countless insect species. «Australia ranks among the top ten most biodiverse countries on Earth; more than 80 percent of its mammals and 90 percent of its reptile species are endemic and found nowhere else. The fires pose a serious threat to numerous species — dozens of vertebrate species and hundreds of insect species could face extinction», explains the Pro Wildlife spokesperson. However, the full extent of the damage is barely foreseeable at this point. More than ten million hectares have fallen victim to the fires in Australia over the past two months, including national parks and other protected areas. Rescuers on the ground speak of apocalyptic scenes; for every animal found alive, countless others are dead.

2020: The Super Biodiversity Year

Several important species conservation conventions are meeting this year, and the EU intends to present its biodiversity strategy for the next ten years at the end of February. All of these activities are overshadowed by the alarming reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), published in 2019. «The warnings from IPBES and IPCC have so far been largely ignored by global politics; the biodiversity targets for 2020 are being missed spectacularly», adds Astrid Fuchs.

A Political U-Turn After the Catastrophe?

In view of the scale of the fires and the international attention they have received, Pro Wildlife is calling for a long-overdue political U-turn: «In Australia, a highly developed industrialised nation has completely lost control, the government is proving helpless, and the world public is shocked. We hope that the catastrophic bushfires will lead to a rethinking of international climate policy», concludes the Pro Wildlife spokesperson. «2020 is the right year for it.»

Stop Kangaroo Hobby Hunting

Tens of thousands of kangaroos have perished in Australia’s devastating bushfires. Despite this, they continue to be heavily hunted in many of the affected areas. The animal welfare organisation Pro Wildlife is calling for the systematic killing of more than one million kangaroos per year for pet food, meat, and leather to be permanently ended.

It has now been announced that the Italian luxury label Versace is abandoning kangaroo leather on animal welfare grounds. Some British supermarket chains have also stopped selling kangaroo meat.

«Germany is the third largest importer of kangaroo products. German companies have so far refused to remove football boots, dog food, and kangaroo steaks from their product ranges. In light of the devastating impact of the bushfires, we call on all companies to stop selling kangaroo products.», says Daniela Freyer of the animal welfare organization Pro Wildlife. Leading sports equipment manufacturers such as Adidas, Puma, and Nike use kangaroo leather (marketed as “K-Leather”) for football boots, among other products. The meat is sold by German supermarket chains such as Lidl, Aldi, Rewe, and Netto, as well as by numerous pet food retailers.

The public is largely unaware that Australia's emblematic animals are being slaughtered en masse and in a cruel manner, to be processed industrially into pet food and football boots. Even in areas particularly hard hit by bushfires — such as Kangaroo Island, Victoria, and New South Wales — these unique animals continue to be shot in large numbers. The government of Victoria had only recently given the green light for the continued hunting of the animals for pet food production. Due to the bushfires, at least Victoria and Kangaroo Island have temporarily suspended recreational hunting — but only until the impact of the fires on wildlife can be better assessed. Other states, such as New South Wales, have taken no measures whatsoever. There, the government had already declared kangaroos a “pest” in response to ongoing drought and scarce resources, and made it easier to shoot them.

The Australian government claims, based on questionable population projections, that numbers have increased for some species and that recreational hunting is necessary because the animals cause damage. Scientists and animal welfare advocates have long warned that the mass killing could threaten population levels and that reliable population figures are lacking. According to Australian media reports, commercial hobby hunters — so-called “shooters” — had already complained before the fire disaster that they were not finding enough animals.

«Kangaroos have been native to Australia for millions of years. Now, livestock farmers and politicians are making them scapegoats for failed agricultural policies in regions increasingly affected by drought, and degrading them to pests to be shot in their millions. This relentless persecution must finally come to an end — especially in the wake of the devastating fires», says the Pro Wildlife spokesperson.

Background Information

Between 2013 and 2016, 19 percent of kangaroo meat exported from Australia was delivered to Germany, totalling more than 2’500 tonnes. Almost 14 percent of hides traded worldwide and ten percent of leather end up in Germany. Four large kangaroo species are commercially hunted in Australia. Because recreational hunting takes place at night and with firearms, many animals are only wounded. In addition, tens of thousands of kangaroo joeys die in their mothers' pouches as collateral damage, even though animal welfare standards are actually supposed to prevent this. Kangaroos have a low reproduction rate; usually only two young per female survive in a given year. During dry periods, up to 100 percent of joeys can die.