14 June, 2016
Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists warns Baird’s biodiversity laws will “increase the rate of species extinctions”
The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists has issued a damning assessment of the Baird government’s draft Biodiversity Conservation Bill, warning it will “increase the rate of species extinctions”. [Download]
The Group has written to NSW MPs warning the government’s plans will result in “more degraded land, more damage to river systems, increased carbon emissions, and the loss of habitat critical to the survival of threatened species.”
The letter says the package “will breach the government’s election promise to ‘enhance the State’s biodiversity for current and future generations’”.
Nature Conservation Council CEO Kate Smoklsi said: “The Wentworth Group’s criticism is especially damning because one of the signatories to the letter is Professor Hugh Possingham, who sat on the government-appointed Independent Biodiversity Legislation Review Panel that wrote the blueprint for these reforms. [1]
“Mr Baird has sought to give its flawed package legitimacy by claiming it is implementing the Biodiversity Legislation Review Panel’s recommendations. It is now clear he is doing no such thing.
“One of the Review Panel’s own distinguished members, Professor Possingham, has through the Wentworth Group letter indicated the government’s approach will be bad for wildlife and bushland.”
The Wentworth Group letter identified three main flaws in the Baird government’s package:
• Over-use of self-assessable codes, which will allow a resurgence in broadscale land clearing, habitat destruction, soil degradation, and water pollution;
• Failure to map and protect high-value wildlife habitat where clearing should not occur; and
• Misuse of the $240m private land conservation to make it a de facto “taxpayer subsidy to farmers to degrade land”.
“These laws have little to do with biodiversity conservation and everything to do with fast-tracking land clearing and property development,” Ms Smolski said.
“They will further the short-term interests of property developers and big agribusiness, not the communities and wildlife that depend on healthy soils, waterways and bushland for their long-term survival.
“We are already losing about 10,000ha of bushland every year to land clearing under the existing laws. Loosening controls further would be catastrophic.
“For the sake of rural communities and our native wildlife, these proposals must not become law. Mr Baird must go back to the drawing board and develop a package based on the best science to ensure protections for nature are strengthened.”
Quotes from the Wentworth Groups letter to NSW MPs:
… we believe key elements [of the government’s announced changes] will substantially weaken existing protections. These retrograde changes risk returning to an era of unsustainable environmental damage by reinstating broadscale land clearing, resulting in more degraded land, more damage to river systems, increased carbon emissions, and the loss of habitat critical to the survival of threatened species.
These changes will damage the reputations of those farmers who want to be good stewards, the vast majority of whom are unaffected by the current laws.
Any loss of important habitat or endangered vegetation types will increase the rate of species extinctions, which is inconsistent with government policy. This would be a clear breach of the government’s claim that these reforms will ‘cut red tape, facilitate ecologically sustainable development and conserve biodiversity across NSW.
The government is halfway through an eight-week public consultation process before public submissions on the proposals closes on June 28.
MEDIA CONTACT
James Tremain | 0419 272 254
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/biodiversity/BiodivLawReview.pdf
WENTWORTH GROUP OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS - MEMBERS
- Mr Peter Cosier
- Dr Richard Davis
- Prof Tim Flannery
- Dr Ronnie Harding
- Dr Terry Hillman
- Prof Lesley Hughes
- Prof David Karoly
- Dr Jamie Pittock
- Prof Hugh Possingham
- Mr Robert Purves
- Dr Denis Saunders
- Ms Anna Skarbek
- Prof Bruce Thom
- Mr Martijn Wilder
Source: http://wentworthgroup.org/members/
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