***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
BIODIVERSITY/FOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS
RAN
Action Alert--Australia's Daintree
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
1/3/95
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
Australia's
Daintree Rainforest, though largely "saved" a number
of
years back through strong grassroots organizing and protest,
still
faces a number of threats to this hotbed of endemic
biodiversity. This is Rainforest Action Network's recent
Action
Alert
posted in econet's general rainforest (rainfor.genera)
conference.
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/**
rainfor.genera: 150.0 **/
**
Topic: Action Alert--Australia's Daintree **
**
Written 3:33 PM Jan
3, 1995 by rainforest in
cdp:rainfor.genera
**
From:
Rainforest Action Network <rainforest>
/*
Written 3:16 PM Jan
3, 1995 by rainforest in igc:ran.news */
/*
---------- "Action Alert--Australia's Daintree" ---------- */
Action
Alert:
Aussie
terrorists kill wildlife, threaten more
Anti-green
terrorists shot and killed a spectacled flying fox in
Australia's
Daintree Rainforest in December and hung the body
on a
fence with the sign: "Piggy bat today - Casa tomorrow."
"Piggy"
is Dr. Peter Pavlov, the local-government conservation
officer.
"Casa" is the cassowary, an elusive, endangered bird that
grows
up to six feet high. Its numbers have fallen dramatically
since
the European settlement of Australia. Pavlov's job
includes
monitoring cassowary habitat.
Unfortunately,
the perpetrator is probably safe from prosecution.
Some
authorities regard flying foxes as highly threatened, but
they
have no serious legal protection in Queensland and are
regarded
as vermin.
This
killing is a direct attempt to intimidate the protectors of
this
unique environment. The Daintree area is the center of a
major
conflict pitting pro-environmental residents, local
government,
the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the Wet
Tropics
Management Agency (a government body which controls the
World
Heritage Wet Tropics area) on the one hand against pro-
development
residents on the other.
Issues
of settlers' property rights, controls on domestic animals,
vegetation-clearing,
extension of the power grid to a 6,600-acre
subdivision,
and the impact of the tourist trade are polarizing
the
community. They also directly threaten the biological
integrity
of the rainforest.
The
local council inadvertently precipitated the crisis by
ordering
a unique, wide-ranging botanical audit of the land north
of the
Daintree River. The audit found some "highly restricted"
endemic
plants (whose world distribution can be restricted to
areas
as small as a football field) on much of the private
property.
Coupled
with the Daintree Rescue Program--a community-
sponsored,
voluntary buy-back scheme for critical property, the
audit
triggered fear in the more conservative members of the
community.
Some landholders fell into a "clear it or lose it"
mentality.
They bulldozed recently-purchased lots which had
extremely
high conservation significance in the most sensitive
area of
the Daintree.
They
harbored the misguided fear that the special plants would
result
in the government confiscating their land. Local
conservatives
have carried out disinformation campaigns,
exploiting
strong anti-establishment feelings in the area.
These
campaigns have been inadvertently assisted by poor public
relations
by conservation officials. The National Parks Service is
reluctant
to provide adequate visitor access to the rainforest, so
tour
operators turn to private land--often using it without
permission.
This land contains virtually all the area's lowland
rainforest.
A
potent image uniting conservation-minded people within the
region
is the cassowary, symbol of the World Heritage Wet
Tropics
area. The threat to kill a "casa," then, is not only a
blatant
act of aggression, but a direct statement of opposition to
local
environmental initiatives.
Daintree,
the "Heart of the Wet Tropics," is certainly not saved
yet and
still could be lost to poorly controlled and inappropriate
development.
At least one-third of the privately-owned rainforest
land
has already been cleared. Nonetheless, the local council
majority
is still against imposing legislation to protect the
native vegetation
of the area, favoring education instead.
Education
is necessary but is not enough to save the Daintree.
--Daintree
Rainforest Task Force
Please
write to Australia's Prime Minister and Environment
Minister
in the next few weeks. Sample letter:
Prime
Minister Paul Keating
c/o
Parliament House
Canberra
2601 AUSTRALIA
John
Faulkner
Environment
Minister
c/o
Parliament House
Canberra
2601 AUSTRALIA
Dear
Sir:
Please
support the need for Douglas Shire Council to enact laws
preventing
indiscriminate forest clearing on private property
north
of the Daintree River. Support controls on vegetation-
clearing
and excavation, in order to preserve the remaining
areas
of environmental significance. Australia's tourist economy
depends
on preserving these treasures. I will boycott travel to
Australia--and
urge others to do likewise, unless you act to
protect
the Daintree Rainforest.
Sincerely,
Postage
U.S. 50 cents
------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
From
World Rainforest Report, January - March 1995
Published
by:
Rainforest
Action Network
450
Sansome St., Suite 700
San
Francisco, CA, 94111, U.S.A.
Automatic
info: ran-info@igc.apc.org
Tel: (415) 398-4404
Fax: (415) 398-2732
Rainforest Action Network is a non-profit
activist
organization
working to save the world's rainforests and support
the
rights of indigenous peoples. Begun in 1985, RAN works
internationally
in cooperation with other environmental and
human-rights
organizations on major campaigns to protect
rainforests.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
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encouraged to utilize this information for personal
campaign
use; including writing letters, organizing campaigns and
forwarding. All efforts are made to provide accurate,
timely
pieces;
though ultimate responsibility for verifying all
information
rests with the reader. Check out our
Gaia Forest
Conservation
Archives at URL=
http://forests.lic.wisc.edu/forests/gaia.html
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