2016-03-03
Greens Urban Bushland Spokesperson Lynn MacLaren MLC says claims by the Environment Minister that Carnaby’s black cockatoos will be better off under the Government’s Perth-Peel Grown Plan contradict warnings made by the Environmental Protection Authority in a landmark report issued late last year.
“Minister Jacobs reportedly thinks that the disastrous effects of clearing swathes of critical foraging habitat for endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoos can be ameliorated by creating offsets – in other words, earmarking existing bushland outside the urban area for conservation,” Ms MacLaren said.
“However, as the Environmental Protection Authority explicitly warned in formal strategic advice to the Government last year, ‘Perth and Peel@3.5 Million – Environmental Impacts, Risks and Remedies’, this is not working, especially for Carnaby’s black cockatoos because the offset land includes hardly any new foraging habitat for the cockatoos, and therefore there is a big net loss of foraging habitat for these birds, thus pushing them closer to extinction.
“It is appalling that the Minister seems not to have heeded this warning from the EPA, which was a rare direct critique of government policy.
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