HABITAT DESTRUCTION AND BIODIVERSITY LOSS

 A recent Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) report has highlighted some major problems with the way the health of our biodiversity is assessed and protected from sliding further towards extinction.  In 2023 the addition of 144 animals, plants and ecological communities to the threatened species list was more than in any other year since the list was established.

Among those listed for the first time were the Pink Cockatoo (endangered), the Northern Blue-tongued Skink (critically endangered) and the Jardine River Turtle (critically endangered).

“Scientists nominated many of these species for listing years ago, so 2023’s high number shows the Environment Minister (Tanya Plibersek) and her department are clearing the backlog and making the list better reflect the reality,” said ACF nature campaigner Peta Bulling.

“The problem is the factors driving species onto the endangered list are not being stopped.  In the last 12 months, 10,426 hectares (25,800 acres) of habitat destruction was approved under Australia’s national nature laws.”

She added that this amount of clearing approved was likely to be a fraction of total habitat actually cleared because land clearing in Australia often happens without being assessed under environmental laws.  Along with many others concerned about biodiversity loss, Bulling wants to see the upcoming reforms to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act address habitat destruction which is pushing our biodiversity towards extinction.

Consultation on the EPBC Act reforms commenced last year with experts and key stakeholder groups.  It is expected that draft legislation will be introduced to federal parliament some time this year.

Since the new federal government was elected, Minister Plibersek has made listing decisions on 223 threatened species and eight ecological communities. These included 130 bushfire-affected species and eight bushfire-affected ecosystems.

While habitat clearing is a major driver of biodiversity loss that affects our region, we now have another major environmental problem – the arrival of fire ants – which requires urgent effective action from local, state and federal authorities – including from our local members of parliament – Hogan and Williamson.

-        Leonie Blain

 Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , January 31, 2024.

 

 

THE NSW STATE ELECTION AND THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

With the NSW election just over a week away, the community is being bombarded with both promises and warnings by political parties and their candidates as well as by independents.  Unsurprisingly the promises are to encourage people to vote for a particular party or candidate and the warnings are about not to vote for the other mob or disaster will strike.

I attended a state election candidates’ event in Grafton several weeks ago and heard both promises and warnings from the four candidates (three representing political parties and one independent) who were seeking to become the Clarence MP.  Some environmental issues were discussed and I was heartened to hear that all candidates were concerned about the Clarence River and opposed any mining in its extensive and fragile catchment.  That was the only issue on which they all agreed.  Since that event another four candidates have emerged so that the state electorate of Clarence now has eight candidates in the March 25 election.

Our new state government has many challenges ahead of it on the environmental front.

NSW is facing accelerating biodiversity loss.  Many people are aware of this in relation to iconic species like the Koala which is threatened with extinction in NSW by 2050 if effective decisive action does not halt its decline.  But biodiversity loss affects all species across all ecosystems – not just the iconic ones.  Our three levels of government - local, state and federal -  are responsible for decisions and legislation which are accelerating species decline.

So what needs to be done at the state government level?  One of the really major improvements would be protection of existing healthy natural habitat from degradation – for example forests, natural\grasslands, wetlands or estuarine habitats.  This means broadscale land-clearing that is currently happening in NSW must be halted and backed up with effective monitoring and compliance procedures.

Another major improvement would be taking into account the cumulative impact of the many apparently small actions or developments on patches of biodiversity across the landscape.  This has been referred to as “death by a thousand cuts” and while it is something  dismissed by politicians and bureaucrats, it is having an accelerating impact on our biodiversity.

Protection of habitat is the key.  Funding must be directed towards this basic need – not at cosmetic, feel -good projects that do not address the basic problem - continuing habitat loss.

-        Leonie Blain

 

 

ENDING PUBLIC NATIVE FOREST LOGGING IN NSW

Calls for an end to logging NSW’s public native forests are growing. One of the reasons for this call relates to threats to our biodiversity.  Healthy native forests ecosystems provide essential habitat for native species including threatened species like koalas.  Also forests with mature trees provide the hollows needed for a range of threatened birds such as parrots and large owls and arboreal mammals including gliders.  Current logging practices destroy this important habitat value at a time when we are experiencing a growing biodiversity crisis. 

Another reason is that our State Forests are vitally important in our efforts to mitigate climate change by providing an important store of carbon.  Destroying forests releases carbon that has been stored over the trees’ lifetimes and contributes to climate change. Ceasing native forest logging will be a key component in successfully meeting our 2050 net zero emissions target.

Logging these important publicly-owned natural resources is unsustainable now – let alone in the long term – because of the damage it causes. 

Having recognised this problem in their states, Victoria and Western Australia have decided to phase out native forestry logging.  While their decisions were influenced by science, strong community campaigns eventually encouraged them to act.  In NSW there is increasing community support for our government to take this action and many conservationists and others are urging the NSW Government to follow their example and phase out logging our public forests.  Obviously a comprehensive transition plan for the current public forests industry will need to be developed as the plantation-based industry is expanded.  Expansion of the plantations must only be on land that is currently cleared. 

Public native forest logging is also economically unsustainable. The Forestry Corporation loses money each year with a loss of $20 million last year.  A recent study by ANU’s Professor Andrew Macintosh and Frontier Economics found that ceasing native forestry logging in the south of NSW could produce over the period 2022-2041 a net economic benefit of about $60 million while reducing net greenhouse emissions by about 1 million tonnes per year. 

            - Leonie Blain

 Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , June 22, 2022.

 

RALLY IN COFFS HARBOUR TO PROTECT PUBLIC FORESTS ON FRIDAY APRIL 29

The North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) is holding a rally in Coffs Harbour to highlight important issues around the NSW Legislative Council inquiry into the long term sustainability and future of the timber and forest products industry.

NEFA's media on the rally is posted below.

 

NEFA will be holding a rally from 10.30 - 11.30am on Friday 29 April , outside the Coffs Harbour Council Chambers, before the Coffs Harbour hearing of NSW Upper House, Portfolio Committee 4, 'Inquiry into the long term sustainability and future of the timber and forest products industry'.

NEFA want to emphasise to the Committee that there is no social licence for the continued logging of public native forests and that in the midst of the developing climate and extinction crises we need to take urgent action, with the most effective action we can take immediately to begin to address the problems is to stop logging public native forests, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“Through logging we have halved the carbon stored in our forests, by stopping logging the recovering forests will be able to regain the lost carbon from the atmosphere and store it in their trunks and soils, taking up a significant amount of what NSW releases every year.

“While we need to reduce our emissions, if we are ever to reach net zero we need to increase carbon capture and storage, and trees are the only proven way to make a significant difference.

“As the forests recover so too will the resources needed by our threatened fauna, giving them a better chance of withstanding the increasing intensity and frequency of droughts, heatwaves and wildfires.

“The Committee needs to recognise that the public have had enough of seeing our public forests progressively degraded and turned into pseudo-plantations. They provide a higher return to the community from tourism, carbon storage, water and habitat.

“A 2016 survey for Forestry and Wood Products Australia of 12,000 people throughout Australia found that native forest logging was considered unacceptable by 65% of rural residents and acceptable by only 17%.

“The Committee needs to focus on identifying a just and equitable transition strategy for the 500 workers across north-east NSW that will be affected by protecting public native forests, Mr. Pugh said.

 

28th April 2022

More information on Inquiry into the long term sustainability and future of the timber and forest products  industry is available on the Committee's inquiry page

ENVIRONMENTAL HOPES FOR 2020

2019 has not been a good year for the natural environment either in Australia or elsewhere.  Here climate change has delivered a worsening drought and an escalating megafire disaster - both of which have caused devastating damage to the natural world as well as to the human world. 

Will 2020 be any better for the natural world?  It’s not looking at all promising at the moment.

Although I find it difficult to be optimistic about any improvement, I believe that our governments – and the politicians who serve in them – have been given a strong wake-up call that could lead to some positive action.

Below are some of the changes I hope to see in the coming year.

We need a commitment by all political parties to radically reduce carbon emissions as well as a bipartisan plan to phase out fossil fuel use.  Obviously we also need to plan a just transition for those communities which currently rely on fossil fuel industries.

Furthermore, as global citizens, we need to accept that coal should be left in the ground and acknowledge that opening new coal mines and expanding existing mines is not in either our interest or the global interest.  

The tax breaks given to fossil fuel companies should be abolished and fossil fuel company donations to political parties should be banned.  The Australian community needs its politicians to focus on the national interest, not the interests of polluting fossil fuel companies and their shareholders.

We need a serious effort to halt the biodiversity crisis that Australia is currently facing.  Much attention has recently been given to koalas, an iconic species, but they are a symbol for the hundreds of other species of flora and fauna that are also under threat of extinction. 

The NSW Government needs to take seriously this threat and give the natural environment a priority it has so far failed abysmally to do.  Laws relating to land-clearing and forestry operations need to be drastically changed. 

 

Will any of this happen?  It could if enough concerned community members force politicians to re-think their priorities.

            - Leonie Blain

This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on January 6,   2020.