The fresh calls for more funding to protect Australia's environment comes as the 2010 UN International Year of Biodiversity started this week with a series of events around the globe - though no events were organised by the Australian Government.

The diverse groups urging the Government to better invest in biodiversity include the Australian Conservation Foundation, the National Farmers Federation and a number of prominent scientists.

While the amount of annual government spending on biodiversity is hard to determine, the federal Environment Department's primary programs allocates $1 billion a year annually.

The state governments and other federal departments also commit funds to protecting the natural environment.

An ACF national liaison officer, Amy Hankinson, said yesterday there was serious under-investment in biodiversity and at least another $1 billion a year should be put into environmental programs to protect ecosystems from the effects of climate change.

As a comparison, she said, the Federal Government now offers $5 billion a year in fuel tax credits to industries such as mining and transport.

"We have neglected our wildlife for too long, close to half of all mammal extinctions in the last 200 years have occurred in Australia," she said.

The ACF also pointed to a scientific report commissioned by the Government in August last year that finds ''our environment has suffered low levels of capital reinvestment for decades. We must renew public and private investment in this capital.''

One of the co-authors of the report, Dr Mark Stafford Smith, science director at the CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship, said increased funding of the protection of the environment was essential because biodiversity was crucial to producing clean water and crops, and protecting animal and plant species.