Australian rural environmental law reform: the risk of replacing inefficient rules with feel-good slogans and non-feasible expectations

The loss and degradation of biodiversity is an unfolding tragedy, in Australia and around the world. As human populations increase in an area, natural biodiversity can be expected to decline due to causes such as over-exploitation, agriculture, urbanisation, invasive species and disease.1 The more intense the human occupation, the greater the chance of losing native biodiversity, ultimately creating urban biodiversity deserts where few species thrive other than exotic species and humans. Intact biodiversity has a better chance in non-urban areas, which have become the frontier in the battle between humankind and nature. As the frontiers for nature are forced back, biodiversity depletion is inevitably substantial. This dynamic is particularly evident in Australia, where European agriculture was introduced just over 230 years ago and where species loss has been (and continues to be) dramatic.