Fenner in the News - More than 1,000ha of koala habitat would be cleared for proposed Queensland coalmine
More than 1,000 hectares of koala habitat – as well as 70 hectares of greater glider habitat – would be cleared to dig coal under a new mine being proposed in central Queensland.
Despite both marsupials being recently listed as endangered due to habitat loss, the proposed mine, which is currently under consideration by the state government, does not require an environmental impact statement (EIS).
Prof David Lindenmayer, an Australian National University ecologist, said allowing the habitat of endangered species to be destroyed “made a mockery” of environmental protections.
“What’s the point of uplisting a species to endangered if you’re then going to just allow more and more habitat for that species to be cleared?” he said.
Lindenmayer said a piecemeal approach to environmental approval, in which projects were assessed in isolation, amounted to a system that threatened to make Australia the “extinction capital of the planet”.