“It’s not often that any arm of government, Federal or State, puts the interests of the environment, farmers and the broader community before that of the coal industry,”said Senior Climate & Energy campaigner Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Nic Clyde.
A draft of Whitehaven’s previous Biodiversity Management Plan (BMP) had sought special permission to clear “up to 163 ha of native vegetation” this year in order to create space to “ensure that as at 31 December 2014, there will be a sufficient area for coal extraction for six months”.
Whitehaven’s neighbour’s BMP (Boggabri) does not permit clearing outside of late summer / early autumn: “the removal of native vegetation which contains potential roosting/nesting resources for birds and/or arboreal mammals will be conducted outside known breeding/hibernation periods, during late summer or early autumn.”
Whitehaven’s nearby Werris Creek Coal Project’s BMP mandates that “clearing activities will be scheduled outside of periods of fauna breeding or hibernation/torpor.”
These unequivocal commitments are in stark contrast to the language Whitehaven has been trying to get past NSW Planning in revised BMPs.
Instead of providing a guarantee to do the right thing, and commit to no clearing outside of late summer / early autumn, the company chose to commit only to “predominantly”, and then “when practicable”, with a further “preferentially avoided as far as practicable”.
“We applaud the courage of the both the Minister, Pru Goward, and the Secretary of the Department of Planning, for intervening on behalf of fauna in the forest; for putting wildlife before the interests of this controversial coal company.”
“It was a scandal that WHC considered itself such a special case the government would just walk away from its own standards to accommodate the company’s demand. This is clearly a company under huge financial pressure. As we’ve seen over the last 3 years, the ASX is up 18 per cent versus WHC down 73 per cent. This means WHC has underperformed the ASX by 77 per cent.” concluded Clyde.
The Department restricted WHC clearing to between the 15 February and 30 April to avoid killing animals during the spring and early summer breeding and roosting periods, as well during winter’s hibernation months.
The plan includes a number of measures to ensure work to build the mine affects wildlife as little as possible, including:
- staging clearing so that only the minimum number of trees needed to allow mining planned for the next year to occur are cleared
- compulsory supervision by licensed wildlife carers and ecologists, who will have the wellbeing of the animals as their top priority
- banning clearing when temperatures exceed 35°C so animals do not have relocate to other trees in extreme temperatures
- carrying out detailed inspections of trees before they are removed to identify any animals that will be affected
- relocating any animals that could be disturbed by clearing
- radio tracking of relocated animals to provide a greater understanding of the effect of relocation on animals to benefit this and other future projects.
For further information:
Nic Clyde Senior Climate & Energy Campaigner Greenpeace: 0438 282 409
Julie Macken, media officer Greenpeace: 0400 925 217