Environment groups blast 'timid' biodiversity funding

Conservation groups have savaged the federal budget as timid and inadequate, saying it will not halt Australia's nature crisis.

There is agreement among campaigners that Labor's promises to fix the sick environment and ward off more extinctions are undercooked.

Some say that without radically more cash the next environmental check-up could be as grave as the last, which found 19 ecosystems were showing signs of collapse or near collapse.

"We've heard this government bemoan a 'lost decade' under the former coalition governments, yet looking at this year's budget, we fear nature risks losing so much more," Wilderness Society campaigner Sam Szoke-Burke said.

"Unless this situation changes, Australia's next State of the Environment report may not be any better than the last."

Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Kelly O'Shanassy said the budget was a "timid" response given the nation was at risk of losing iconic native species including east coast koalas, glossy black cockatoos and greater gliders.

"Experts say $2 billion a year is needed to restore Australia's degraded ecosystems and help threatened species recover, but this budget acts like the biodiversity crisis isn't a real crisis," she said.

"While $2 billion a year over 30 years to protect nature might sound like a lot, the government is prepared to spend six times more on nuclear submarines over the same period.

"The really ugly part of this budget is the continuation of subsidies to big, multinational companies encouraging them to use more coal, oil and gas."

WWF-Australia said the budget had some "nudges" in the right direction, including money to set up the first national environmental watchdog that would enforce a set of laws for nature.

There was also cash to set up an environmental data agency to underpin decision making.

But chief conservation officer Rachel Lowry said the budget failed to deliver anything like what was needed for protected areas, and the recovery of imperilled plants and animals.

"The number of threatened species has increased by 8 per cent since 2016 and we're losing vast stretches of forests and habitat every year. Our wildlife cannot afford to wait for another year and another budget."

She also noted an absence of funding to make progress on Labor's promise to protect at least 30 per cent of Australia's land by 2030.

"Australia protects approximately 21 per cent of its land," Ms Lowry said.

"To expand our protected area network by up to 107 million hectares, we need seed funding for new national parks and Indigenous protected areas, in addition to sustained funding to maintain existing parks."