Six key threats to life as we know it

Demoiselles swim over sponges at Mimiwhangata marine reserve. Photo / DOC

A group of Pacific researchers has taken the looming extinction of plant and animal species and boiled it down to six key threats.

Scientists believe Earth is in the middle of its sixth great extinction - the first to be caused by humans.

Now, 15 researchers from Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and parts of Micronesia have reviewed thousands of papers and identified ways to stem the biggest dangers.

The authors said Oceania - which includes New Zealand, Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia - had a particularly bad record on species loss and that could worsen if Governments did not act quickly.

Habitat loss, invasive plants and animals, illegal logging and overfishing, pollution, wildlife diseases and climate change were listed as the biggest dangers to biodiversity.

The authors recommended banning bottom trawling, more marine reserves, polluter-pays laws for water and making plans to move species affected by climate change, among other changes.

In New Zealand, the article quoted studies showing 68 per cent of threatened species were at risk from habitat loss and 69 per cent from pests.

A New Zealand-based author of the study, Dr Craig Morley, feared saving money would take priority because of the current tough economic climate.

"Apathy and indifference in making some difficult decision leads to an even greater risk of extinction."

The study, published in Conservation Biology, concluded conservation was often poorly funded, particularly in the smaller island states.