Landclearing in Australia, your help is needed!!
"In Queensland, clearing approvals for leasehold land increased by over 60% from 1998 levels, to 644,000 hectares in 1999. It is expected that actual clearing rates on leasehold and freehold land also increased significantly." HELP STOP AUSTRALIA’S LANDCLEARING Please read the following information regarding landclearing, especially the information relevant to your state. We have attached a brief note in a format you can cut and paste straight into your newsletters or magazines if you produce either of these. You can also tailor these to your local landclearing issues. It is important that you voice your concern to both the Prime Minister and your local MP. ACT NOW!!!!! Write to:
Mon, 31 Jul 2000* The Hon. John Howard MP, Prime Minister, Parliament House, Canberra ACT, 2600. You can also fax the Prime Minister on 02 6273 4100. (Sorry no e-mail).
Write to: Entsch, The Hon Warren, Member for Leichhardt at : Warren.Entsch.MP@aph.gov.au
Cairns office, AAMI Building
140 Mulgrave Road, Cairns Qld 4870
(07) 4051 2220 (tel)
(07) 4031 1592 (fax)Please use your own words, based on the information above and express your personal opinion and concerns on land clearing to John Howard and Warren Entsch.
Please send a copy of your letter or fax to us at ACF: Australian Conservation Foundation, 340 Gore Street, Fitzroy Vic, 3065. Fax: 03 9416 0767. or email c.sherwin@acfonline.org.au
For more information on the issue check out ACF’s website on: http://www.acfonline.org.au/campaigns/landclearing/intro.htmHelp stop LAND CLEARING
Take Australia off the International blacklist
Background
Australia is famous for its Koalas, Kangaroos, other marsupials, plants and animals, many of which are found nowhere else on earth. It is one of only 12 countries to be recognised by scientists as "mega-diverse" and, in fact, nearly 10 percent of the world’s animal, bird, plant and microbe species live in Australia. Most of these are found nowhere else on earth.
But Australia has one of the highest rates of land clearing in the world and the effects of this habitat destruction on Australian wildlife are catastrophic. In just 200 years since European settlement, Australia has reached the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world and almost half of our marsupial species are either extinct or threatened.
Recent data suggests that Australia cleared over half a million hectares of its native vegetation in 1999 (an estimated 529,200 hectares, 400,000 of which was in Queensland). On available figures, this rate is outpaced by only four other countries in the world: Brazil (2,554,400ha), Indonesia (1,084,400ha), Congo (740,200) and Bolivia (581,400ha).
Between one and two football fields of bush is being bulldozed every minute of each day.
It is not just species which are threatened with extinction - entire ecosystems of native plants and animals are being obliterated by land clearing. This places Australia in breach of the international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). As a contracted party the CBD requires us to develop or maintain necessary legislation and/or other regulatory provisions for the protection of threatened species and populations, and to promote national arrangements for emergency responses to activities or events which present a grave and imminent danger to biodiversity.
Land clearing also has serious impacts on human communities.
Removal of bush is causing salty groundwater water to rise, causing salt scalds, rising salinity levels in rivers, reduced farm productivity, damage to roads, buildings and other infrastructure in towns and cities, and plummeting drinking water quality in many areas.
Land clearing is also estimated to contribute about 13% of Australia’s greenhouse pollution, through the rotting and burning of millions of tonnes of vegetation.
This is in breach of article 2 of the Kyoto Protocol to the Convention on Climate Change which provides that parties shall promote sustainable forms of agriculture in light of climate change considerations (most clearing is for agriculture), and protection and enhancement of sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gasses.
Prime Minister John Howard will soon decide whether to provide funding support to help Queenslanders control land clearing.
What Can be Done to Stop Land Clearing in Australia
The Australian Government must accept its responsibility to protect farm productivity, wildlife and rural communities and fulfil its international treaty obligations.
You can help by writing to Prime Minister John Howard, expressing your concern about land clearing and associated land degradation, biodiversity decline and greenhouse emissions and urging him to take the following actions:
¨ Provide immediate financial support to assist with the introduction, implementation and monitoring of proper clearing control legislation in Queensland, prohibiting clearing of vegetation types classified as "of concern".
¨ Include land clearing as a matter of national environmental significance, triggering Federal Government action, in the new Environment Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act;
¨ Ensure that binding, enforceable clearing control legislation is introduced across all jurisdictions and all land tenures in Australia.