It seems that I am often the harbinger of doom. I find myself reporting more terrible news about species declining towards extinction, increasing risk of heat waves to people and ecosystems, and governments signing off more and more destruction. All this bad news is overwhelming.
So I’m very happy to report that there is good news for Queensland! The Queensland Government are proposing a new Bill, the “Vegetation Management and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018”, which would bring back many of the tighter regulations around vegetation management (aka land clearing), removing self-assessable codes which do not provide adequate protection for threatened ecological communities or species. [We covered this in a recent article in The Conversation, and in a recent blog post]
These reintroduced regulations are sorely needed. Colleagues here at the University of Queensland have shown that for many bioregions across Queensland, ‘Endangered’ and ‘Of Concern’ Regional Ecosystems are being cleared faster than those that are ‘Least Concern’.
In short: we are losing the threatened vegetation communities faster than those that aren’t threatened.
I’m currently working on a paper showing habitat loss of Black-throated Finches which has happened under the current legislation … stay tuned for that one.
Today I got to speak as a scientific witness at the public hearing for this proposed Bill. I sat alongside ecological legends Leonie Seabrook and Jen Silcock, providing evidence for why these amendments are needed. I’m excited by the great people who are working towards better vegetation regulations, and the political will to make it happen. I hope that this good news turns into fantastic news – that the Bill will be passed.
On this topic – another colleague here Blake Simmons’ paper on “Spatial and temporal patterns of land clearing during policy change” just hit the decks and worth a look!