Fully recovering Australia’s threatened species would cost 25% of GDP –  a staggering A$583 billion per year, every year, for at least 30 years.

 Results of new study, published in The Conversation,  says that while this obviously is infeasible, it shows the extent of 200 years of human impacts on nature in Australia and is a cautionary tale for what further damage will cost to repair.

Australia has already lost at least 100 species since European colonisation and a further 1,657 species are currently threatened with the same fate.

The accelerating loss of species is one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time, says the report.

Read the fill report here