ENVIRONMENTAL organisations have responded to reports the State Government’s Green Growth Plan would “decimate” the already-threatened Western Australian Carnaby’s Black cockatoo population.
The Perth and Peel Green Growth Plan, which is being tabled by the State Government, has been developed as part of a strategic assessment which aims to protect endangered wildlife and provide certainty for developers by removing the need for environmental assessments for development proposals in the Perth-Peel region.
However, the plan has come under fire for potentially putting Carnaby’s cockatoo numbers under even more risk, with the Gnangara Pine Plantation facing extensive clearing which will directly affect the Carnaby’s black cockatoo’s habitat.
A leaked government document obtained by the ABC has shown Carnaby's black cockatoo populations are expected to halve by 2020, despite statements the Plan would improve protection of endangered native species.
“While the government has hailed this Plan as a great environmental initiative, the government’s own numbers show that it will lock in the deaths of thousands of cockatoos through starvation, as their vital food sources are bulldozed to make way for more unsustainable urban sprawl,” Conservation Council director Piers Verstegen said.
“The plan gives certainty to developers that they will make profits and gives certainty to thousands of cockatoos that they will be killed or die of starvation.
“The population of these beautiful and unique birds has been rapidly declining over the last decade and the Green Growth Plan would fail to address that decline.
“Until now we have had a death by a thousand cuts as urban sprawl has destroyed vast areas of critical habitat for cockatoos. The Green growth Plan was supposed to fix that problem however the Governments own numbers show it will do the opposite.”
Mr Verstegen said while the Plan ostensibly put in place processes for environmental protection, the certainty given to development projects far outweighed any ecological advantage.
“If our environmental laws can allow endangered wildlife to be decimated in this way clearly those laws are failing our environment and need to be changed urgently,” he said.
“Based on these projections, it is clear that the Green Growth plan needs to be sent back to the drawing board and much greater effort made to protect remaining banksia woodland and other critical habitat for endangered species in the Perth-Peel Region.”
The Carnaby’s black cockatoo is listed as endangered, its population in WA having decreased dramatically since the 1960s due to urban development and land clearing.
The Peel region is an important area for the birds, having large numbers of native banksia and being between the Swan Coastal Plain and South West WA.
“The cockatoos you’ll be seeing in Mandurah are those travelling from the Swan Coastal Plain and from the southern forests, because they feed on banksia and there’s a large number of banksia plantations in Peel,” Mr Verstegen said.
South Metropolitan region MP Lynn MacLaren said reports from environment minister Albert Jacob that Carnaby’s black cockatoos would be better off under the Green Growth Plan contradicted warnings from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made last year.
“Minister Jacobs reportedly thinks that the disastrous effects of clearing swathes of critical foraging habitat for endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoos can be ameliorated by creating offsets – in other words, earmarking existing bushland outside the urban area for conservation,” Ms MacLaren said.
The EPA explicitly warned against this action last year, Ms MacLaren argued, saying their strategic plan showed it would not work, “especially for Carnaby’s black cockatoos because the offset land includes hardly any new foraging habitat”.
World Wildlife Fund Southwest Australia Species Conservation manager Merrill Halley urged the government to immediately release the report properly to the public.
"For more than 75 years, Carnaby's black cockatoos have relied on Perth's pine trees for food and a place to roost," Ms Halley said.
"Loss of food and shelter threatens the very survival of species in the Perth and Peel area."
Mr Verstegen said the cockatoos were only one of many native animals under threat from the plans, simply because the statistics outlining their decline exist.
“The reason Carnaby’s black cockatoos are in the spotlight at this point is because we actually have the numbers to show their decline, and how development is affecting them,” he said.
“There are many more animals and plants under threat, but because the government has not undertaken studies into them, we have no way of knowing how these plans are affecting them.”
