September is Biodiversity Month, a time to celebrate our natural wonders and diverse ecosystems. Biodiversity Month offers us the perfect opportunity to pause and appreciate the beauty, complexity, and importance of biodiversity. Biodiversity Month also encourages us to reflect on our relationship with the natural world and take action to protect it.
Australia is one of a group of only 17 ‘mega-diverse’ countries. These mega-diverse countries cover less than 10% of the world’s area but have more than 70% of its biodiversity. Many of our plants, animals and places are unique and are not found anywhere else in the world.
How can you celebrate Biodiversity Month?
Run a Threatened Species Day event
Threatened Species Day is recognised across the Australia on 7 September every year to raise awareness of plants and animals at risk of extinction. Threatened Species Day acknowledges the death of the last remaining Thylacine, Tasmanian tiger at Hobart Zoo in 1936.
Your guide to running a successful community event
This guide is intended to help community organisations, schools and businesses around New South Wales to host an event to increase awareness about the plight of threatened plants, animals and birds in their local area.
Get involved in a Citizen Science program near you
Citizen Science programs provide a important source of data about biodiversity. Data and insights gained through the efforts of citizen scientists enable us to learn more about our environments by creating additional data sources.
Here are some tips on how to create an environmentally friendly backyard and a haven for native wildlife. You can also become more sustainable by growing fruit and veggies, having fresh eggs and reducing your waste.
Attracting birds to your backyard is easy by creating a garden that will provide food, shelter and nesting materials and nesting sites. Local flowering plants and fruit trees provide birds with nectar and seeds. You can provide birds with protein rich food, by using mulch to encourage worms, insects and grubs. You can provide shelter by planting dense prickly native shrubs, hang up nesting boxes and installing a bird bath.
Encourage frogs to come to live and breed in your backyard. Create a small shallow pond in an area that is partly shaded or install Frog Tubes. Include thick ground hugging plants around part of the pond to provide areas of warmer and cooler water. Your pond will need some sunlight to encourage algae and other plants that provide food for tadpoles. Make sure the banks slope gently so that the frogs can get out. Add some rocks and logs to provide shelter for adult frogs.
Not all minibeasts are pests. Good bugs pollinate plants, break down dead flora and fauna, aerate the soil and are food for other wildlife. They can even help keep harmful pests away. Create an inviting environment for good minibeasts by planting plenty of native plants, wildflowers and herbs and use chemical-free pest control when the pests do creep in.
Biodiversity Month serves as a reminder of the extraordinary diversity of life on our planet and the importance of preserving it. Biodiversity is not just a concern for scientists and conservationists; it’s a global responsibility that each of us can contribute to in our own way. Whether through education, advocacy, or personal lifestyle choices, we can all play a role in safeguarding the web of life that sustains us. So, this September, let’s celebrate and protect the incredible biodiversity that enriches our world.
September is Biodiversity Month, a time to celebrate our natural wonders and diverse ecosystems. Biodiversity Month offers us the perfect opportunity to pause and appreciate the beauty, complexity, and importance of biodiversity. Biodiversity Month also encourages us to reflect on our relationship with the natural world and take action to protect it.
Australia is one of a group of only 17 ‘mega-diverse’ countries. These mega-diverse countries cover less than 10% of the world’s area but have more than 70% of its biodiversity. Many of our plants, animals and places are unique and are not found anywhere else in the world.
How can you celebrate Biodiversity Month?
Run a Threatened Species Day event
Threatened Species Day is recognised across the Australia on 7 September every year to raise awareness of plants and animals at risk of extinction. Threatened Species Day acknowledges the death of the last remaining Thylacine, Tasmanian tiger at Hobart Zoo in 1936.
Your guide to running a successful community event
This guide is intended to help community organisations, schools and businesses around New South Wales to host an event to increase awareness about the plight of threatened plants, animals and birds in their local area.
Get involved in a Citizen Science program near you
Citizen Science programs provide a important source of data about biodiversity. Data and insights gained through the efforts of citizen scientists enable us to learn more about our environments by creating additional data sources.
Make a Wildlife garden
Here are some tips on how to create an environmentally friendly backyard and a haven for native wildlife. You can also become more sustainable by growing fruit and veggies, having fresh eggs and reducing your waste.
Attracting birds to your backyard is easy by creating a garden that will provide food, shelter and nesting materials and nesting sites. Local flowering plants and fruit trees provide birds with nectar and seeds. You can provide birds with protein rich food, by using mulch to encourage worms, insects and grubs. You can provide shelter by planting dense prickly native shrubs, hang up nesting boxes and installing a bird bath.
Encourage frogs to come to live and breed in your backyard. Create a small shallow pond in an area that is partly shaded or install Frog Tubes. Include thick ground hugging plants around part of the pond to provide areas of warmer and cooler water. Your pond will need some sunlight to encourage algae and other plants that provide food for tadpoles. Make sure the banks slope gently so that the frogs can get out. Add some rocks and logs to provide shelter for adult frogs.
Not all minibeasts are pests. Good bugs pollinate plants, break down dead flora and fauna, aerate the soil and are food for other wildlife. They can even help keep harmful pests away. Create an inviting environment for good minibeasts by planting plenty of native plants, wildflowers and herbs and use chemical-free pest control when the pests do creep in.
Find out what else you can do to create a wildlife friendly backyard.
Biodiversity Month serves as a reminder of the extraordinary diversity of life on our planet and the importance of preserving it. Biodiversity is not just a concern for scientists and conservationists; it’s a global responsibility that each of us can contribute to in our own way. Whether through education, advocacy, or personal lifestyle choices, we can all play a role in safeguarding the web of life that sustains us. So, this September, let’s celebrate and protect the incredible biodiversity that enriches our world.
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