@[email protected] is an account worth following if you use Mastodon.
Every indicator on the environment is going in the wrong direction. The environment must be given legal priority over land-clearing and logging to survive.
“The Henry review is the latest in a number reports that have found Australia’s natural environment is in peril. The five-yearly state of the environment released last year found it was in poor and deteriorating health due to pressure from climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and mining.”
“Dr Ken Henry (Chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation) says NSW’s biodiversity laws are failing and must be overhauled to give nature protection primacy over l o g g i n g , mining and urban expansion…Australia’s environment must be given legal priority over land-clearing and logging to survive.”
“He made the comments after leading a scathing review of the New South Wales Biodiversity Conservation Act, which said the laws were failing and were likely to never succeed unless they were overhauled to give n a t u r e p r o t e c t i o n primacy over development, logging, mining and urban expansion.”
“Legislation that deals with rural lands and rural land-clearing, in particular, [but also] legislation that deals with planning, with f o r e s t r y , with mining – you name it, all of those other acts have p r i m a c y over the biodiversity and conservation act, and they are undermining its effectiveness…That’s the biggest problem."
“On nature, Henry’s recommendations included the creation of “no-go” zones in which land-clearing would be banned and major changes to the state’s biodiversity offset scheme, which was found to be “compromised”.”
“Fix the biodiversity offset scheme, strengthen environmental protections and stop runaway land-clearing"
#IntergenerationalTragedy #Offsetting #climate #Logging #StopLogging #NativeForest #Australia #policy #environment #law #biodiversity #extinction
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/25/dr-ken-henry-environment-land-clearing-logging
Australia’s natural environment is in crisis and protecting it must become the top priority in government policy and legislation if it is to have a chance, a former Treasury chief says.
Henry told the ABC’s RN Breakfast that “Every indicator” on the environment was “Going in the wrong direction”.
“It’s not going to be any good in the future to say, well, the environment is a nice-to-have but really we’ve got to focus on investment here, or a residential development there, or a mining project here, or continuing to log native forest over there - that those things are more important than the environment.”
Henry said the 58 recommendations of his review proposed a new standard of “Net gain” or “Nature positive” that must underpin decisions that affected the environment in NSW. “It’s a massive change, but it’s no more than what’s required,” he said.
The Henry review is the latest in a number reports that have found Australia’s natural environment is in peril.
The five-yearly state of the environment released last year found it was in poor and deteriorating health due to pressure from climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and mining.
The NSW environment minister, Penny Sharpe, said the state government would consider the Henry review’s recommendations and deliver on commitments to “Fix the biodiversity offset scheme, strengthen environmental protections and stop runaway land-clearing”.