Australia is a global leader in species extinctions.

Australia is unfortunately a global leader when it comes to extinction, with 29 mammal species becoming extinct since the arrival of Europeans — that's a third of the world's total mammal extinctions in that time.

Australia is a global leader with regard to the extinction of its mammal species.

Now scientists say a further 1,800 species are at risk of extinction from a range of threats.

Martine Maron, a Professor in the University of Queensland's school of Earth and Environmental Sciences, told PM that the biggest threat to species in Australia are habitat destruction, over-extraction and introduce species.

Listen to the ABC story - “Australia is a global leader in species extinctions.”

'On a dark path': Coalition defends record after extinctions accelerate

The Morrison government has defended Australia's efforts to protect threatened species a day after a global study detailed the prospect of a million species becoming extinct because of humans.

About 7.5 million hectares of habitat for endangered
species in Australia has been cleared since 2000,
the Australian Conservation Foundation estimates.

The assessment report by the so-called "Paris Agreement for nature" identified more than 40 per cent of amphibian species and a third of marine mammals among those facing oblivion, while about 9 per cent of land-based species "have insufficient habitat for long-term survival”.

Federal Environment Minister Melissa Price said the Coalition had spent more than $425 million since 2014 on some 1300 projects to "protect and recover populations of threatened species”.

Other efforts included the increase in Indigenous Protected Areas to 75, with some 67 million hectares managed by traditional owners.

Read the story from The Sydney Morning Herald by Peter Hannam - “'On a dark path': Coalition defends record after extinctions accelerate.”