Bio-bashing: bank habitat loss
The State Government's scheme to "fast-track" development by allowing developers to effectively buy the right to destroy threatened species habitat is back in Parliament.
Who developed the scheme? The Science Council or the Property Council?
The bill was first introduced in July this year and was slammed by groups concerned about the environment. Forty-four coastal environment groups signed a letter of concern to the Government, which said in part:
We believe that it threatens at least 6 of the most fundamental principles of modern conservation, as follows:
1. That conservation is not transferable and is best undertaken in situ. The Bill encourages the relocation of conservation effort away from high conservation value areas threatened with development to less threatened areas.
2. That land-use planning should involve public consultation. The bill supports a wide range of land-use and conservation decisions to be made without public consultation or review.
3. That native biodiversity will not be sold for Government revenue. The Bill effectively allows for payment for approval to destroy biodiversity and threatened species.
4. That conservation law should be strong, clear and comprehensive. This bill leaves the key elements of biobanking to be defined by later policies or regulation.
5. That conservation areas are in perpetuity. The Bill allows the Minister to terminate or vary offsets or allow development on offset areas.
6. That the formal reserve system of protected areas under the National Parks and Wildlife Act is the cornerstone of conservation. The Bill redirects conservation effort away from the formal reserve system into untested and insecure mechanisms.
However, the Government is still going ahead with the plan, and has just released amendments which make it even more pro-development and pro-mining and which are clearly designed to appease those interests even further. The changes do nothing to address any of the major environmental concerns. This was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Ian Cohen, NSW Greens Upper House MP, has said that the further watering down of the much-maligned biobanking scheme demonstrates yet again that the State Labor Government is beholden to the development lobby at the expense of biodiversity.
“This scheme, which would allow developers to buy credits to offset the environmental impacts of their projects, was already flawed,” Mr Cohen said.
“Developers will have the choice to use the scheme or existing threatened species legislation, so the easier option is likely to be this ill-conceived offsetting plan.
“Areas set aside to create credits in the biobanking scheme have no guarantee they will be protected in perpetuity.
“Biobanking benefits developers, who have a long history of large donations to the ALP. Developers will be able to plough ahead with little public scrutiny of their activities under this scheme.
“Environmentally sensitive areas should be protected in their own right, not used as a way to facilitate increased development elsewhere.
“A two year trial of the program will only see the environment degraded while property developers walk away with the spoils,” Mr Cohen said.
Have your say by emailing The Premier, you could highlight that the scheme
* Is really just a 'pay to kill' bill - the scheme means that developers can effectively buy the right to destroy threatened species habitat
* You can't bank a bulldozed bushland - this bill is based on bulldozing bushland in one area in return for putting a fence around another bit of bush, but the bulldozed bush is gone forever and can never be replaced
* The biobanking scheme will bankrupt threatened species - threatened species habitat will be cleared in return for protecting bushland elsewhere, but that bushland can later be cleared itself, which means this banking scheme will utlimately be foreclosing on a future for a threatened species
* Threatened species habitat needs to be protected, not bought and sold to the highest bidder
