STAN MUSSARED'S "GOODBYE BLINKY BILL"

On January 16, 2017 Stan Mussared's   "Goodbye Blinky Bill"  was published as the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner.  Koalas were under threat then and had been for years.   What Stan wrote in 2017 still applies today.  Indeed their situation is even worse now with predictions that they could be extinct in NSW by 2050. 

 

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Far too often we humans stand beneath a tree, look up at a koala on a branch far above our heads and say in a voice loud enough for him to hear, “Our interests are more important than yours.”

The koala may answer softly, “No tree, no me.”  He could have added, “And if my home is threatened, then so is the diversity of other flora and fauna that share the same ecosystem with me.”

But we fail to hear.

Forested areas are cleared to make way for our developments – urban areas, agriculture, roads and highways – and loss of habitat, the number one threat to a healthy koala population, takes place.

The precious habitat areas that remain are fragmented and isolated, and on koalas trying to exist in these pockets the pressure builds and serious issues quickly arise.

There is now excessive energy expenditure on greater ground movement as koalas search for the scattered food trees.  As they move across highways, fences, car parks, and backyards, they face a myriad of problems from motor vehicles, dogs and swimming pools.

The greatly reduced habitat areas lead to a greater density in the remaining koala population.  There is now increased competition for food and many are forced to eat poorer quality leaf.  There is also a greater tendency for inbreeding, and thus a lower genetic quality animal.

The destruction of koala habitat creates very high stress levels which increases susceptibility to disease.

Historically koalas have not been treated well.  Up until 1930 around 2 million koalas were “harvested” for the fur trade.  A public outcry resulted in a change and koala numbers slowly increased.  However, with habitat being removed , koala numbers are spiralling down again.

It is indeed time that we change our statement as we look up and say in a voice loud enough for him to hear, “Yes, I will care for you and our Community of Life with understanding, compassion and love.”

-          Stan Mussared

RULES FOR PRIVATE NATIVE FORESTRY LOGGING

The public was recently invited to comment on a draft code of practice (CoP), the 'rule book', for private native forestry (PNF). The CoP has been in place for about 15 years, with the current draft resulting from the mandatory 5 yearly review.

 

With the stated aim of ensuring Ecologically Sustainable Forest Management, one would expect any review to focus on that aim, but unfortunately that has not been the case.

Ecologists and conservationists have two major concerns, the first being that, while there are provisions to protect threatened flora and fauna that are known to inhabit the proposed logging areas, there is no requirement to actually look for them. In fact, unless there is an official record of a threatened species on the property, it is assumed they don't occur there.

The second concern is a lack of compliance monitoring and enforcement -  for which there is certainly a wealth of evidence. Although it's difficult to pin-point a reason, possibly it relates to a lack of political will to take action against the industry at large. Perhaps it is a case of under resourcing, poorly drafted legislation open to interpretation, or all of the above, but the fact remains that flouting of the Code's regulations is widespread.

Two years ago, the Clarence Environment Centre reported one local case where a PNF operator broke virtually every rule in the book - literally hundreds of breaches. Logging on creek banks, in swamps, on rocky outcrops and on cliff edges. Snigging tracks were constructed on excessive slopes, and across gullies, erosion control measures were inadequate, threatened species had been trampled by machinery, and rubbish like oil drums and tyres were left littering the landscape.

The investigators spent days on site, confirming the reported breaches, and finding additional ones yet, almost two years later, no action has been taken against the culprits, and with the two year statute of limitations looming, the case will likely be dropped.

Unless operators are held to account, how can we have any faith in the supposed aim of Ecologically Sustainable Forest Management?

           

 - John Edwards

 This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on May 25 ,  2020.

WHO TOOK THE CONSERVATIVES OUT OF CONSERVATION?

 ‘Who took conservatives out of conservation?’ is a headline in the latest issue of Habitat Australia, the magazine published by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF).

It’s a question that’s close to the ACF’s heart. This organisation was established in the mid-1960s at the behest of the Duke of Edinburgh with a grant from the Menzies Government and with Sir Garfield Barwick (Chief Justice of the High Court and previously a minister under Menzies) as president — it was conservative to the core.

The Abbott-Truss Government’s hostility to the environment has been surprising in its breadth. Their targets haven’t just been the carbon tax, renewable energy and curbing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, but also the Tasmanian Wilderness and Great Barrier Reef World Heritage areas, the network of Commonwealth marine reserves, the National Water Commission and the ‘green tape’ of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

It wasn’t always so with Coalition governments.

The EPBC Act was drafted and passed by the Howard Government. Howard proposed the national representative system of marine protected areas in 1998 and set up the National Water Commission in 2004.

The Tasmanian Wilderness and Great Barrier Reef were nominated for World Heritage listing by the Fraser Government, which also ended sand mining on Fraser Island and whale hunting in Australian waters.

At the state level, the original and current National Parks and Wildlife Acts were passed by the Askin Government in NSW which, in 1970, also brought in the Clean Waters Act and the Pollution Control Act.

Nick Greiner brought in the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991 which set up the legislative framework for ecologically sustainable development (including the precautionary principle) and replaced Askin’s State Pollution Control Commission with the Environmental Protection Authority.

Care for the environment — and willingness to introduce laws and regulations to protect it — has never been the exclusive territory of left-leaning governments. It is puzzling why the current crop of Liberal-National governments is now disowning and dismantling the legacy of their conservative forebears.

-          J Cavanaugh