Abstract for presentation at Biodiversity Extinction Crisis Conference - A Pacific Response

Biodiversity conservation and restoration is a key challenge facing Australia. Victoria has considerable areas of stressed landscapes - a higher percentage of land area than any other State - as a result of extensive land clearing, habitat modification, hydrological changes and spread of exotic species. Current conservation approaches based on species, places and proximal threats are not halting the decline in biodiversity. New approaches to conservation biology are stressing the key role of ecological processes in conservation planning and management. Unless the ecological processes that support biodiversity are systematically considered in policy and conservation planning, efforts to sustain biodiversity into the future are likely to fail. This paper discusses a consultative process that has been developed to build on the work being undertaken by the Victorian Ecosystem Processes Scientific Group. This consultative process is now translating the scienctific assessment of the role of ecological processes in maintaining biodiversity into the policy arena - from what needs to be done from an ecological perspective, into how to achieve it. This requires a policy shift to encompass a new conceptual framework where maintaining and restoring ecological integrity is a key strategic goal. Central to this is ensuring viability of long term evolutionary processes and putting in place systematic responses to reverse impacts of past intensive habit loss and fragmentation and minimising adverse impacts from climate change. This paper discusses big-picture, large scale and long term perspectives in identifying policy directions, in addition to identifying urgent actions that are required.