Join FoE, The Wilderness Society & grassroots member groups of the Victorian Forest Alliance at Treasury Gardens on Saturday October 4 (corner of Spring St & Treasury Place). We’ll make our voices heard in a bold, visual display in Melbourne’s CBD — featuring hundreds of people forming the shape of a Greater Glider!
The Greater Glider is a fascinating and incredible animal – a huge nocturnal teddy bear with a long fluffy tail that can glide 100 metres through the forest. But soon, we may witness it being wiped off the planet, forever – before most Australians have ever had the chance to learn about and celebrate it. All levels of government must ensure that the species currently listed as vulnerable and endangered – and the ecosystems they call home – are able to recover.
The Greater Glider curls up at night in old tree hollows, which take over a hundred years to form, and are critical for the survival of many of our favourite mammals and birds. But our systems, profit geared choices and government priorities are destroying this essential habitat around the continent.
Our unique wildlife brings joy and a sense of identity to all living on this continent. One day, we hope to live in a society that inherently values our unique biodiversity, where it would be unthinkable to destroy habitat for private profits or short-term gain. But, here and now, we need governments to take their duty to protect iconic wildlife from extinction seriously:
Government has a responsibility to not only identify which species are declining, but actually deliver on recovery plans. Government has a responsibility not only to protect habitat, but to invest in ecosystem restoration. Government has a responsibility to design and implement appropriate accountability measures that ensure the protection of habitat, so that community groups don’t have to carry the burden of taking environmental departments to court when Greater Gliders are killed in their hollows.
We'll need some committed volunteers from 12pm to create the giant glider image, like a human sign! Please get in touch if you can help: [email protected]
Then we will commence at 1pm with Welcome to Country from Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, listen to some speakers & enjoy a performance.
Bring something bright, bring your friends & bring your passion for biodiversity! Costumes and creative volunteer roles available on the day!
Photo credit: Justin Cally.