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Policy B3: Natural Resources
1. Australia’s natural resources must be managed in accordance with the principles of intergenerational equity, biodiversity conservation and respect for the traditional ownership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
2. the management of Australia’s natural resources must ensure the sovereignty and independence of future generations.
3. resource extraction decisions must be guided by rigorous environmental and social impact assessment and by the precautionary principle.
4. climate change must be a central consideration in the management of forests, fisheries and mining.
5. recognition of the essential role played by mature forest ecosystems in wildlife habitat, carbon storage and water supply.
6. a sustainable and productive wood products industry on public and private land that maintains or enhances the resilience of natural ecosystems.
7. a high value-adding wood products industry that creates long-term skilled jobs and social sustainability in regional communities.
8. an end to the destruction of old-growth forests and other forests of high conservation value.
9. tax arrangements which do not advantage plantations over other crops.
10. world’s best practice certified farm-scale plantation forestry.
11. a diversity of species in plantations.
14. end logging in native forests except, once export woodchipping from them is banned, in limited areas where small volumes of timber can be taken from defined areas under strict conditions and for specialty purposes.
17. abolish Regional Forest Agreements and replace the Commonwealth Regional Forest Agreements Act 2002 to ensure that forests, plantations and the wood productions industry are treated equally with other activities under environmental law.
18. implement a national wood products industry plan that will complete the transition from native forests to existing plantations, including retraining and other assistance for workers and the development of sustainable alternative fibre industries.
19. the management of recreational and commercial fisheries to maintain sustainable populations and fisheries, and to minimise the environmental impacts of fishing.
20. protection of fish nursery habitat.
21. environmentally benign aquaculture industries.
22. a strategy to maintain adequate, biologically representative ‘no-take’ areas within each fishery and/or marine bioregion for the conservation of marine biodiversity and fish stocks.
23. complete the independent ecological assessment of Australia’s commercial fisheries under the provisions of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
24. expand fisheries assessments to all Australian fisheries, including recreational fisheries, and develop and implement a national framework for managing recreational and charter fishing.
25. increase the number of Australia's marine reserves, particularly where these improve the resilience of vulnerable fish populations.
26. strengthen and continue Australia’s proactive stance on illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, including assisting in the development of alternative employment opportunities for impoverished communities now relying on the illegal trade.
27. in cooperation with the states and territories, develop a nationally agreed framework for the assessment and regulation of aquaculture developments based on ecosystems management principles.
28. implement a moratorium on deep-sea bottom trawling in Australian waters and require by-catch reduction in all trawl fisheries.
29. maintain adequate, biologically representative ‘no-take’ areas within each fishery and/or marine bioregion.
30. ban all factory-ship based fishing in Australian pelagic fisheries.
31. a viable mining and mineral exploration sector that meets stringent environmental protection standards.
32. all mining activity to be consistent with the desires and needs of affected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
33. ensure that environmental and social impact assessments are rigorously applied and implemented on all mining proposals and projects.
34. prohibit the exploration for, and mining and export of, uranium.
35. oppose the establishment of new coal mines and the expansion of existing mines.
36. prohibit mineral exploration and mining as well as extraction of petroleum and gas in terrestrial and marine nature conservation reserves, including national parks, wilderness areas and other areas of outstanding nature conservation value.
37. establish a national mining insurance fund, based on mining industry contributions, to provide resources sufficient to rehabilitate the environmental impacts of existing mining operations.
38. ensure that all new mining proposals include a fully costed and funded allocation for the restoration and rehabilitation of the impacted area(s) to world’s best practice standards.
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| B3 Natural Resources June 2008.pdf | 61.96 KB |
