Politicians and conservationists are calling for changes to environment laws to save WA’s black cockatoos.

Dozens of protestors staged a ‘die-in’ on the steps of parliament house yesterday to raise awareness of the species’ decline.

The Australian Conservation Foundation says four out of five Australian black cockatoo species are under threat nationally.

Protest organiser and director of Save the Black Cockatoos Paddy Cullen says habitat loss is the biggest factor.

“The drop in black cockatoo numbers is an indicator of what is happening to the environment,” he says.

“We need to save [their] habitat and we need to act on climate if we’re going to save the black cockatoos.”

Mr Cullen is among those pushing for a federal environment protection authority, which does not currently exist.

“We need a federal body that’s independent [and] has experts that can follow the international targets that Australia has set,” he says.

Western Australia has its own Environmental Protection Authority but it has been critisised as ineffective by conservation groups.

WA Conservation Council campaigns director Mia Pepper says the EPA doesn’t have enough authority to override projects harming the environment.

“Our state EPA has been constrained in many ways over the years through changes in laws, ” she says.

“At the end of the day a minister can make a decision that is different to what the EPA reccomends, and in WA there is no mechanism to challenge that in a court to say ‘no that decision is wrong, or that decision is going to have a huge impact on our environment’,” she says.

Greens member Brad Pettitt says deforestation is the leading cause of habitat loss.

“At the moment we’ve got really big holes in our environmental protection system where we’re not properly capturing the cumulative impacts of a loss of native bushland on key species,” he says.

“We’re not looking strategically around how climate is going to impact our northern jarrah forests and other key areas in banksia woodlands that these species depend on.”

Today marks the start of tree month in the City of Perth, with the council holding several tree planting events.

Mr Pettitt says the state government needs to “step up” its support for such events.

“They’ve got the money, they’ve got the resources and they can work in partnership with local governments to really turbo charge this re-greening,” he says.

Paddy Cullen from Save the Black Cockatoos says with a new WA environment minister and the prospect of minor parties gaining seats in this weekend’s election, change could be in the air.

“There’s a real opportunity now to reset conservation for the state and for the country and hopefully take Australia from being the laggards of conservation in the world…to a nation that is a leader in conservation,” he says.