Environmental News and Action
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Environmental News and Action |
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Wilderness win Bob Carr is on track to becoming the Premier that will be remembered for saving the wilderness of NSW. On 29 June, the Premier announced a $5 million package to secure wilderness for future generations. The money boost for the Dunphy Wilderness Fund will help protect many threatened forest areas, especially on the North Coast of NSW. Purchasing threatened forests over the coming year will build a living legacy to those pioneers of wilderness conservation, in particular Myles Dunphy and the first generation of bushwalking conservationists. The Dunphy Wilderness Fund has been able to secure wilderness at $100 a hectare. This means that 50,000 ha will be protected under this initiative, but it will also fill gaps and secure many otherwise badly fragmented park areas. In addition, 40,000 ha in the Kedumba and Kowmung River valleys will be reserved as national park in the heart of the Kanangra-Boyd wilderness. The directing of funds to buy land in the west and genuine forestry restructuring for the western woodlands are also welcome moves. The Carr Government is to be congratulated for its latest nature conservation initiatives. Keith Muir |
Earth Alive!
Biodiversity Month and National Threatened Species Day 2001 are on again in
September. Biodiversity Month provides a national focus to celebrate and promote
your local biodiversity, get the media interested in a local event or ongoing
project, and increase your community’s understanding and involvement in
biodiversity conservation projects in your region.
This year, Biodiversity Month is being organised along with National Threatened Species Day, held every year on 7 September. Earth Alive! Biodiversity Month will be encouraging the community to get their ‘Hands on for Habitat’ and create a garden haven for wildlife.
The Community Biodiversity Network (CBN) and the Threatened Species Network (TSN) have developed a one-stop-shop Registration Kit. To receive a copy of the kit or for more information contact the CBN:
ph 02 9262 4743, or
email earthalive@cbn.org.au
For more information about National Threatened Species Day, contact the TSN on 1800 251 573.
Groups can also register events and order products on-line at the website:
www.cbn.org.au/projects/earthalive2001/home.html
NSW Coastal Package
The move by the State Government to take some action to control the rape of our
coast by greedy developers and short-sighted local councils is welcomed by the
Three Valleys Branch of NPA.
The State Government has announced an $11.7 million coastal package, which will include scientific assessment (the Comprehensive Coastal Assessment) to determine which parts of the coast are suitable for development and which areas require special protection. There will be new enforcement powers over coastal development, and a plan to bring all major urban centres under the same Coastal Policy.
The local councils covering the three valleys – Bellingen, Nambucca and Kempsey – have made a number of bad decisions in coastal development. Though local councils claim to represent the residents, many decisions seem instead to be on behalf of developers.
Some of what our Branch calls bad decisions are the rezoning of scenic protection land at Dulconghi by Kempsey Shire Council to permit rural residential; and the rezoning of rural land at Oyster Creek by Nambucca Council to allow rural residential on one of the most beautiful, untouched parts of the Shire's coast. Bellingen Council is pressing the urbanisation of land south of Urunga, which could result in the pollution of the Urunga Lagoon. The Nambucca Shire Council in 1987 ignored our objections to zoning for tourism development of land near Scotts Head, only to see the community involved in a long and expensive debate over a development proposal. It is not the fault of the developer but the Council which zoned the land.
We would urge local government to pay more attention to environmental studies, to the submissions by the public who are not fools, and to think further ahead for the future of the district. The new coastal plans may help them see their way more clearly.
Sally Cavanagh
President
Three Valleys Branch
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ALEX COLLEY wins award The Australian Geographic Society has presented Alex Colley with a silver medallion for Conservation Award, in recognition of his tireless campaigning for the preservation of wilderness areas. Alex has been a passionate conservationist all of his adult life, and is best known for his outspoken support of and lobbying for the Blue Mountains to be added to the World Heritage list. Alex remains an honorary active member of the Sydney Bush Walking Club, which he joined in 1936. He is one of the original "Tiger Walkers", who were renowned for walking huge distances in a weekend, and at 92 years old is the last of the pioneer conservationists to be active in the conservation movement. One of Alex's first actions as a conservationist was to get the Federation of Bushwalking Clubs to adopt the Greater Blue Mountains National Parks plan as its chief conservation objective back in the 1930s. He has lived to see that conservation plan through all its stages until its declaration as a World Heritage property ... more than sixty years later! Alex has been an active member of the Colong Foundation for Wilderness since it was formed to battle limestone mining near the Colong Caves in the southern Blue Mountains. At age 65, he retired from his job with the NSW Planning Authority and graduated to the engine room of the Colong Foundation, taking on the critical role of secretary. Alex Colley has spent a lifetime saving the Australian wilderness from environmental destruction. After 65 years of campaigning, his success in preserving the Blue Mountains makes him an outstanding winner of the Australian Geographic Society’s Conservation Award. |
YURANGALO VCA
The Yurangalo Voluntary Conservation Agreement (VCA), formed in 1997, is located
in the South East Forests of NSW, near the town of Wyndham. Participants in the
Yurangalo VCA (the largest multiple VCA in NSW) have sought to provide a
contiguous wildlife corridor, protect water catchments, provide refuge for fauna
(particularly threatened species) and maintain the integrity of stands of old
growth and mature forest.
Wedged between Yurangalo and the Yurammie section of the South East NP to the east is an area of forest which missed out on inclusion in the national park, and is now designated as the West Yurammie Special Prescription Zone (SPZ) under the management of State Forests (SF). Under the 1998 Regional Forest Agreement (RFA), the classification of SPZ recognised the particular attributes of the area (including koala habitat values) and the concerns of local residents. Assurances were given that there would be community consultation over the SPZ’s management.
By January 2001, SF had contacted West Yurammie stakeholders, not to consult over management, but rather to present a draft logging proposal for the SPZ. The Yurangalo group was not included in this process and finally was advised that this oversight was due to "clerical error". SF have now agreed to discussions with Yurangalo members.
Logging of the SPZ would not only threaten the values Yurangalo members have sought to protect, but would also diminish the utility and viability of the adjoining national park. The concept of national park management agreed under the RFA was within a bioregional framework which acknowledged the necessity of complementary management of adjoining lands, including State forests.
It is to be hoped that future discussions on the West Yurammie SPZ will be conducted in this spirit.
Kim Taysom
Secretary
Far South Coast Branch
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Hawkesbury Nepean Efforts by NPA, other conservation groups and the local community to have the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Trust re-instated have been ignored by the Government. The Trust was created after years of campaigning by local community activists, supported by peak conservation groups. Correspondence in response to the many protest letters sent to the Premier is being answered by Susan Kemp, a Deputy Director-General in the Department of Land and Water Conservation. The Trust was sacked apparently due to Government "consideration of the need for greater operating efficiencies leading to on-ground actions". Just what actions these might be is not explained by Ms Kemp. Protesters are assured that the "Government will provide for targeted incentives", and disposing of the Trust is "to ensure funding allocations are targeted at priority outcomes which are assessed as having the greatest environmental benefit". It seems in the end that the only real target was the Trust. Roger Lembit |
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