An inquiry into the rate of faunal extinctions was established after an investigation found that Australia’s 1,800 threatened plants, animals and ecological communities were poorly monitored and conservation efforts inadequately funded.
At a hearing in Canberra on Monday, Martin Taylor, the protected areas and conservation science manager from WWF, said 7.5m hectares of threatened species habitat had been destroyed since the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 came into force. In 90% of cases there was no evidence that the clearing had been referred for assessment under the Act.
“We’re looking at a national scandal here to have such massive and pervasive non-compliance with federal legislation with no corresponding evidence of any enforcement action,” Taylor said. He said lack of transparency meant it was unclear what enforcement action had taken place. “How much is the department, in essence, approving by failing to even discover what’s happening or by investigating it and then deciding not to prosecute, which has happened in case after case after case that we have looked at?” he said.
Last week, new data showed forests covering 770,000 hectares had been bulldozed over the past five years in the Great Barrier Reef catchment area alone.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/destruction-of-threatened-species-habitat-taking-place-on-scandalously-huge-scale
At a hearing in Canberra on Monday, Martin Taylor, the protected areas and conservation science manager from WWF, said 7.5m hectares of threatened species habitat had been destroyed since the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 came into force. In 90% of cases there was no evidence that the clearing had been referred for assessment under the Act.
“We’re looking at a national scandal here to have such massive and pervasive non-compliance with federal legislation with no corresponding evidence of any enforcement action,” Taylor said. He said lack of transparency meant it was unclear what enforcement action had taken place. “How much is the department, in essence, approving by failing to even discover what’s happening or by investigating it and then deciding not to prosecute, which has happened in case after case after case that we have looked at?” he said.
Last week, new data showed forests covering 770,000 hectares had been bulldozed over the past five years in the Great Barrier Reef catchment area alone.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/destruction-of-threatened-species-habitat-taking-place-on-scandalously-huge-scale
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