During National Threatened Species Week, Environmental Justice Australia (EJA) is calling on the Victorian government to deliver on its election promise to review the state’s threatened species laws and has released a report setting out how to do so. EJA is questioning the progress made to date by the Victorian government to meets its commitment …
Key points: Legislation will permanently ban development, production of all unconventional gas in Victoria Moratorium on conventional gas extraction to be extended until 2020 Government says ban will protect Victoria’s agriculture sector The Victorian Government is introducing legislation to permanently ban exploration and development of unconventional gas in the state, including coal seam gas and …
Bushfires in Australia can have a devastating impact on an environment and destroy homes and lives, so any effort to prevent them is a welcome move. But the way that we have traditionally understood bushfires and forest flammability in Australia is not up to the challenges of our changing climate. Thankfully, a new approach is …
The Earth’s biodiversity is under attack. We would need to travel back over 65 million years to find rates of species loss as high as we are witnessing today. Conservation often focuses on the big, enigmatic animals – tigers, polar bears, whales. There are many reasons to want to save these species from extinction. But …
A Greater Glider forest refuge was being clearfelled by VicForests through July and August in an extremely provocative act while taskforce members negotiated. This created extreme volatility between the government, its Forest Taskforce (set up to solve Vic’s long and bitter forest dispute), environment groups and VicForests. The logging coupes in our current legal case …
In line with the Taskforce Terms of Reference, those representing the industry, union and enviro groups have refined the agreed opportunities for industry and conservation changes. This includes the establishment of new parks and reserves, threatened species, wood supply security, industry investment, measuring and valuing forest carbon, jobs and regional employment, review and reform regulations …
We have grave concerns that VicForests is positioning itself to carry out its own surveys in forests planned for logging. Before now it has hired independent expert consultant biologists to do the work – albeit minimal. This recently advertised new position points to this backward move. Pre-logging surveys will have very little credibility if this …
The Clarence Environment Centre is also witnessing and questioning the arson being carried out in their local area. The immense damage being done to wildlife and ecosystems, under guise of ‘public safety’ is galling. So many of our rare and threatened wildlife are dependent on large old trees with hollows for nesting and sheltering. “Knowing …
In Victoria, a parliamentary enquiry has been set up to look at controlling invasive species on crown land. EEG is concerned there is too much focus on shooters and National Parks. Allowing shooting organisations to kill deer or foxes in the Alps or parks will hardly put a dint in their numbers (but will gain …
