Responses to climate change

Climate change responses of the Wet Tropics Management Authority

The Authority has worked closley with researchers to identify and promote the potential impacts of climate change in the Wet Tropics. The Authority also promotes community awareness of how Wet Tropics ecossytems can best adapt to these impacts and works with landholders to help create a resilient Wet Tropics landscape.

Wet Tropics greenhouse gas audit

In 2007 the Wet Tropics Management Authority commissioned a regional audit of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Marsden Jacob Associates. This audit provides a detailed summary of the sources and levels of GHG emissions in the Wet Tropics for 2005 and compares them to Queensland and Australian emission levels. You download the greenhouse inventory and a brief summary below:

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Wet Tropics Region: A Preliminary Inventory
  

• Summary of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory
  

For more information about climate change and its potential impacts and what is being done to help prevent climate change, see the Australian Department of the Environment and the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection.

Research assistance and funding

The Authority co-sponsored an international climate change workshop in the Daintree in November 2007 to help save biodiversity from climate change. The conference was convened by Associate Professor Steve Williams, Director of the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change at James Cook University. The role of the participants was to determine which species, habitats and ecosystems will be most vulnerable to climate change.

Scientists said that the northern population of the lemuroid ringtail possum, which occurs on the Carbine Tablelands, has not been seen since late 2005, possibly due to climate change. Steve and his team are currently undertaking an intensive search within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area for the northern population, with funding assistance from the Authority.

Community education

In addition to the State of the Wet Tropics Report 2008 on the impacts and responses to climate change, the Authority has also produced a climate change brochure to educate the community about the potential impacts of climate change and what they can do to help out. It has also produced a range of educational material such as those below for the Cairns Post News In Education pages.