In the new draft BMP - dated 9 July 2014 and not yet approved by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment - Whitehaven state that they want to clear “…up to 163 ha of native vegetation … between 1 November and 31 December 2014. This would mean granting this controversial company special permission to destroy habitat of threatened bird and bats species at precisely the time when the birds are nesting on eggs and the bats are feeding their young in the forest.
“Whitehaven Coal has drafted a new BMP that seeks approval for a summer slaughter of native baby animals. This draft has emerged before the Land and Environment Court has been given a chance to rule on the legality of the case against the current plan, which itself, had been controversially modified in May of this year, to allow clearing of forest whilst threatened species were hibernating” said Nic Clyde, Greenpeace Senior Climate Campaigner.
“Planning Minister Pru Goward must come out publicly and rule out doing yet another sweet deal for the mining industry and prevent the summer slaughter of baby animals in Leard State Forest.”
Greenpeace is calling on Pru Goward to refuse to consider any new BMP from Whitehaven, at least until the Land and Environment Court has had a chance to consider the current one and to listen to the concerns of the community and ecologists who have identified additional threatened species not considered properly, or at all, by Whitehaven.
The community had to step in this winter to stop the slaughter by seeking an interim application to the Land and Environment Court (L&EC), and the full case on the legality of the plan was set down to be heard from 2nd-4th September 2014.
The L&EC may determine in September that Whitehaven are prohibited from any further clearing of native vegetation outside of late summer, early autumn.
“Threatened bird and bats species that breed in spring, when Whitehaven is seeking to bulldoze more forest include: the Little Eagle, Little Lorikeet, Turquoise Parrot, Yellow-bellied Sheath-tailed Bat, and South-Eastern Long-eared Bat. The birds will be nesting on eggs or will have dependent young and the bats will be breast feeding their young during October to December,” said local ecologist, Phil Spark.
Contact:
Nic Clyde, Senior Climate Campaigner - 0438 282 409
Julie Macken, Communications Officer – 0400 925 217
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