Today I heard about a new International United Nations Day - Remembrance Day for Lost Species.
A local designer, Julia Peddle, created this graphic. She attended the permaculture workshop I led today at the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre and introduced us to the Day, at 12:30 we read through the list of Australia's Recent Extinctions and tolled a bell for them. Many groups around the world were doing a similar thing - remembering the lost species from their region.
I knew that species extinction and habitat loss are huge issues, and I work consciously to preserve and renew habitat, but it still shocked me to hear the figure that three species are lost every hour - every hour!
I am marking 30 November in my diary for 2016 and will be organising an event to acknowledge the lost species and help bring more attention to this. Also to keep up to date with what is happening around the world about this project, I have connected with the Facebook group www.facebook.com/internationalremembrancedayforlostspecies/
The lost species are (some have more than one common name, or their aboriginal name included):