Wetlands Cleared

[Rose Fletcher]

On top of the longest drought on record, today we are faced with this bad news for Australian birds:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/bulldozed-a-vital-wetland/2007/05/20/1179601244335.html

The main problem here is the inadequacy of the fines imposed for this sort of behaviour on the part of landowners. The penalty that can be expected for this crime is a fraction of the amount the land is worth to the farmer as cleared and drained agricultural land. Time governments looked at more severe deterrence - personally, I think bushland that has been illegally cleared should be confiscated, to be turned into native plant and animal reserves - even if it can't be returned to its original pristine state.

[Mary]

Rose, please can you suggest an email address or department we can contact to let them know how we feel about this situation? If governments get contacts from around the world about these offences, they may finally get the idea that many people are expecting them to take their responsibilities very seriously.

[Rose Fletcher]

Mary, thank you for your reply - I'm just on my way to the university, but I'll find out today whether it's best to contact the New South Wales government, or the Federal Government, or both. Sadly, their past record for prosecuting in cases like this is woeful, but in this case the sheer scale of the crime has made it headline news.

Yesterday evening (our time) it was featured on the evening TV news, and the area of devastated land shown from the helicopter was incredible. A wetlands expert was interviewed, looking very depressed, and he felt that it would certainly take decades, and possibly as long as one or two hundred years, for the ecology of the area to be restored. It just makes my heart sink. Apart from the most obvious birds affected, there must be so many Rails and similar small birds - along with all those beautiful treetop species who would have played and darted through the trees.

What's needed is to ensure that the economic costs of a crime such as this are greater than the potential rewards. Your interest is so valuable here - Australia is a country whose economy depends fairly heavily on tourism, so the good opinion of the rest of the world is important to our government. It would be excellent if they got a few letters from abroad. I'll be back in a few hours, with whatever info I can gather. :hi:

[Andy in West Oz]

Rose, I hope I'm not stepping on your toes here but here's the contact details for Malcolm Turnbull which I had handy:

Federal Minister for the Environment, Malcolm Turnbull

Electoral office
Level 1, 5A Bronte Rd
Bondi Junction NSW 2022
PO Box 1840,
Bondi Junction NSW 1355
Australia
malcolm.turnbull.MP@aph.gov.au

Cheers

[Rose Fletcher]

Thanks for that Andy. My only concern is that the message gets to the people who can make changes. If you know anything at all that I haven't so far put down here, please do it - that's what I started the thread for. :hi:

Mary, there's a link here for the New South Wales Department of Natural Resources, so that if you like you can take a look at what they are (allegedly) doing to safeguard the environment in their state.

http://www.dnr.nsw.gov.au/vegetation/compliance.shtml

The New South Wales Minister for Climate Change Environment and Water is:

Mr. Philip Koperberg
PO Box A290
Sydney South
NSW 1232

office@koperberg.minister.nsw.gov.au


The state governments in Australia are supposed to look after their particular patches, and are responsible for specific things, like education. I'm not sure who is ultimately responsible for this, but it wouldn't hurt to contact both. If charges are laid, as they should be, that will of course be the province of the courts, but the problems in the past have been that the laws currently in force lack 'teeth', and are difficult to enforce. Orders are often made for restoration of damaged environments, but more often than not, this restoration simply never happens. Therefore farmers such as the clown who razed this wetland can look to a number of other cases where the perpetrator has received only a 'slap on the wrist'. They assume that's all they'll get. Of course, penalties do nothing to restore a ruined wetland - we need laws that will make people think twice.

Thanks for your interest. :clap:

[A CHAPLIN]

Hi Rose,

You can count me in too when you can give us details of the state Environment Minister (or whatever his title) and the federal government too please. Destruction of habitat must be happening all over Australia and it must be stopped. I have already taken part in campaigns to stop logging of ancient forests and other environments round the world. The local people never mind the birds and animals don't benefit only big corporations, we need to protect the earth to live, we can't eat paper money when there is nothing else left, we cannot either live in a desert up to our necks in water, sorry I don't know how else to put that, where will food come from, is some big corporation going to make more money inventing pills that will provide our daily requirements.

Ann :egghead:

[Mary]

Many thanks for the info. Will see if I get a response. It's the least I can do, I feel doing nothing is almost condoning it.

[Andy in West Oz]

I sent an email to Malcolm Turnbull, Federal Enviro Minister yesterday. No reply as yet. |^|

[Rose Fletcher]

Thanks for your replies people. :hi:

You can count me in too when you can give us details of the state Environment Minister

Ann, the address above (Phil Koperberg) is the state Environment Minister, he just isn't called that.

Our government currently has a habit of lumping a number of departments in together, and attempting to name them all in the minister's title. So we don't have simple Environment Ministers any more, they're always Ministers for Life, the Universe, Environment, Church Fetes, and Everything - or something like that. :eek!: :'D I don't know what causes bureaucrats to do those things - however, it's irrelevent for our purposes here. :brains: That's him above, whatever his title says, and Andy gave you the Federal Minister.

As Mary said, negative feedback from abroad may stimulate a government to take action when complaints from their own citizens are shoved aside.:t:

[Mary]

I've received the following reply to my e-mail today.


I refer to your recent correspondence to the Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water, the Hon Phil Koperberg MP, concerning the clearing of native vegetation in the Gwydir Wetlands. The Minister referred your letter to the Department of Environment and Climate Change for response and I apologise for the delay.



As you may be aware, serious allegations have been made concerning the illegal clearing of native vegetation on private property in the Gwydir Wetlands. Ecological experts have assessed the site and thorough investigations by the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change and the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Water Resources are underway.



As you would expect, comprehensive investigation of an incident such as this is likely to take several months to finalise.



In the meantime, action to protect the cleared site and assist rehabilitation has been taken. The Department has issued a ‘direction for remedial work’ to the landholder under the Native Vegetation Act 2003, requiring the landholder to undertake a range of actions to restore the wetland.



I appreciate your concerns regarding illegal land clearing and assure you that the NSW Government remains committed to ending broadscale land clearing.



Yours sincerely





[Signed 30 July 2007]





JOSHUA GILROY

Director North West

Climate Change and Environment Protection

[kookaburra]

I only want to see how terrible the wetland is now....

can anyone post a pic?