Queensland’s wet tropics see 25% rise in threatened species in three years as climate change bites

Ecologist Stephen Williams says tropics ‘at a real risk of losing the very things it was made a world heritage area to protect’

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The number of listed threatened species in Australia’s world heritage northern rainforests has increased by 25% since 2020, as ecologists say they are now clearly observing the long-predicted impacts of climate change.

The management and conservation authority for the Unesco-listed Queensland wet tropics this week handed its latest environmental report to the state government, containing “sombre but pragmatic” warnings about the declining health of some species, including the ringtail possum, that were believed robust when the area was given international protection in 1988.

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