Biodiversity provides the oxygen we breathe and purifies the water that we drink.

It

builds and protects soils and stores and cycles nutrients essential for food production. It controls

pests and breaks down pollutants in the environment. It also aids in the recovery from

unpredictable natural or catastrophic events and helps to maintain a stable climate. These goods

and services, whether gained directly or indirectly from biodiversity, represent the fundamental

building blocks of human society.

When looking at Australia, biodiversity loss is a huge problem. Groups of all levels are

dedicated to protect biodiversity in Australia such as governmental, and non governmental

programs, as well as community, and individual engagement. The Commonwealth Government

legislates to protect specific defined matters of national environmental significance, while local,

state and territory governments regulate environmental protection more broadly.

One of the government created programs is the National Reserve System which includes

more than 12,000 protected forest areas covering 19.74 percent of the country - over 151 million

hectares. In 2008 the government committed to increasing funding of $180 million over five

years to target areas with low levels of protection, including the sub-tropical savanna from Cape

York to the Kimberley, the Mitchell grass country of north-west Queensland and arid central

Australia.

As you you can see the Austrian government has taken on the role of increasing the

awareness of the biodiversity and deforestation taking on the role of advocating for the

environment. Rewarding the country with creating health city living and keeping the farming

community up and running. Unfortunately, with the government interest a lot of money aid is

going towards the environment and decreasing the money going towards roads or education.