Fungimap is seeking to work with conservation organisations to explicitly recognise fungi alongside fauna and flora in conservation language, policy and advocacy.
Across Australia, conservation organisations are doing extraordinary work to protect species, restore landscapes and respond to climate change. Our intention is not to change that work, but to strengthen it by naming a critical component that has long remained largely invisible: fungi.
Increasingly, science is confirming ecosystems do not exist without fungi. Fungi underpin soil structure and water retention, nutrient cycling and plant resilience, relationships between animals and vegetation and a significant proportion of long-term carbon sequestration.
Why language matters
In Australia, fungi are:
- rarely named in environmental law,
- often excluded from biodiversity definitions, and
- frequently invisible in conservation metrics.
This invisibility has real consequences for policy, funding and long-term outcomes.
Internationally, this is changing. Countries including the UK and Chile, among others, have begun explicitly recognising fungi in biodiversity and environmental frameworks. Australia is currently lagging behind this shift.
This is why Fungimap is advocating for a Fauna, Flora and Funga (3Fs) framework in Australian conservation and environmental policy.
For conservation organisations, becoming a 3Fs ally can be as simple as:
- explicitly including fungi in biodiversity definitions and public-facing language,
- acknowledging fungi’s role in restoration, threatened species recovery and climate resilience, and
- supporting policy reform that recognises fungi as a distinct kingdom of life.
We see enormous potential for this approach to complement existing priorities — forest protection, landscape restoration, Indigenous-led land management, regenerative agriculture, climate adaptation and carbon storage. Click on the link below to find out more.