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Nature thrives

“The universe is a continuous web. Touch it at any point and the whole web quivers.”    – Stanley Kunitz

Neon beetles and curious marsupials. Birdsong echoing through ancient rainforests. Wetlands croaking with the gutbucket concerts of frogs. 

The biodiversity on our continent is like nowhere else on Earth.  

Our ecosystems are so complex and delicately interconnected, they shape not just the lives of frogs and beetles — but our climate, soil, food, air, water, livelihoods, health and happiness. 

Yet right across Australia, a startling number of these vital ecosystems are in peril.

Under pressure from a rapidly warming climate, land-clearing, over-extraction and deforestation, entire ecosystems are collapsing before our eyes.

Australia has one of the worst extinction records on the planet. 

We must urgently protect and regenerate these life-giving ecosystems.

We literally cannot live without them.

That’s why at EJA, we are using the law to defend, protect and regenerate four key ecosystems that are vital for life.

From the Southern Ocean to the Northern Territory’s Savanna Woodlands, from temperate old growth forests in Australia’s south east to the Murray River floodplains – these ecosystems are home to vastly different plants, animals and communities.

Yet they face such pressing environmental challenges, they on the brink of colllapse. 

  • Our forests are being destroyed at such a rate that Australia is a global deforestation hotspot alongside the Amazon and Congo.
  • The Murray-Darling river system is now one of the most vulnerable water basins on Earth. 
  • The world’s last untouched tropical savannas in the Northern Territory are a new frontier for environmental destruction from big cotton. 

 

Our focus

We run public interest litigation to defend nature from destruction

On behalf of community groups, we use strategic litigation to urgently stop the destruction of the places and wildlife we love.

We collaborate with courageous communities, environmental organisatons and grassroots groups

We believe community power, backed with legal support, can hold governments and corporations to account for their actions and secure environmental justice.

We push for state and federal laws that actually protect nature

We believe good laws and forward-thinking policies put into practice can regenerate our ecosystems, curb extinction and guide industry so we can all live in balance with the natural world, for the long term.

Our four priority ecosystems

Ancient forests

Using litigation and legal advocacy, we are defending the extraordinary forest ecosystems of south-eastern Australia from destruction. Read more

Savanna Woodlands

Teeming with threatened birds, mammals, plants and reptiles, we are protecting the Northern Territory’s fragile woodlands from bulldozers.
Read more

The mighty Murray

The lifeblood for Aboriginal Nations, river communities, ancient red gums, turtles, birds and fish, we are using the law to protect the Murray River from harm.
Read more

Antarctica & the Southern Ocean

Beneath the icy waves, the Southern Ocean teems with life. We are using the law to protect this critically important ecosystem.

LEGAL CASE HIGHLIGHTS

CHALLENGING LAND CLEARING IN THE NT

We’re challenging the NT government decision’s to let a huge multinational corporation bulldoze nearly 1000 hectares of important savanna woodlands for cotton

WOTCH v VICFORESTS

We’re in court protecting theatened wildlife after Victoria’s catastrophic bushfires

THE POSSUMS CASE

Defending possums from VicForests logging critical habitat, on behalf of Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum

PROTECTING TOONDAH HARBOUR WETLANDS

Uncovering secret documents around Walker Corporation’s proposal to dredge and dry out sensitive Ramsar-listed wetlands

DEFENDING FOREST DEFENDERS

Representing forest activists documenting logging misconduct in East Gippsland

PROTECTING KUARK FOREST

Urgent legal proceedings to protect Kuark forest from VicForests’ logging, on behalf of Fauna and Flora Research Collective

ENDANGERED TREES ON FARMLAND

A VCAT case to protect endangered trees in farming landscapes in Victoria, on behalf of three community members

More of our work protecting nature

Fixing our environment laws

We’re advocating for state and federal laws that actually protect nature, and institutions to properly enforce them. Read more

Rivers and waterways

We’re a nation of swimmers, but too many of our rivers and waterways are drying and dying, polluted and in peril. Read more

Protecting Birrarung

For years, we’ve campaigned to reimagine and protect Melbourne’s Yarra river.
Read more

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