The inconspicuous little Black-throated finch has been in the media a lot in the last few weeks, and that is because decisions being made now have severe implications for its future. It sounds like a big deal. Because, for this little bird, it is.
Last week, the Queensland Government approved a plan that is supposed to outline the management of an endangered species, but was found by multiple leading threatened species experts to fall far short of being up to scratch.
On Friday (31st May), Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science approved the Management Plan for the Black-throated finch, that was written on behalf of Adani as a condition of their state-level permit (Environment Authority) for their Carmichael Coal Mine.
Only a few weeks earlier, Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science had found that the plan was inadequate to conserve the Black-throated finch, based on the findings of the expert review. These experts outlined their concerns publicly in an article in The Conversation, stating:
“There is no excuse for such a poor plan to have been put forward for approval when the company has been aware for almost a decade that the land it wants to mine is home to the largest known remaining population of the black-throated finch.”
Along with other members of the Black-throated finch Recovery Team, I reviewed an earlier draft of Adani's Black-throated finch Management Plan in 2017, and found it fundamentally flawed. The revised version in 2019 had not addressed most of the major issues.
Adani’s Carmichael Coal Mine is only one of hundreds of projects that have been approved by the Australian Government to clear Black-throated finch habitat in the last 18 years. As Black-throated finch habitat continues to disappear, each remaining patch becomes more critical.
The Black-throated finch has become endangered due to loss of habitat – and that loss continues unabated. In addition to the coal mines, Black-throated finch habitat is being lost to agricultural expansion, housing developments and road upgrades. Most of these projects go ahead without much fanfare - but all increase the risk of extinction to the Black-throated finch.
And now, the best remaining habitat is at threat. Our recent paper in Emu showed that the Black-throated finch habitat in the Desert Uplands (the bioregion in which the Carmichael Mine has been proposed) consistently supports larger flocks than the other population stronghold, around Townsville. There is emerging evidence that larger flocks are required for breeding success, and that fragmentation of habitat may mean that areas can’t support large enough flocks to ensure finches can successfully raise their young. So by clearing Black-throated finch habitat for the coal mines in the Galilee Basin there is a double whammy: we lose habitat, and we fragment the remaining habitat which makes it less able to support the Black-throated finch. In short, we take the best remaining habitat, we clear some of it, and degrade the rest.
By approving Adani’s Black-throated finch Management Plan, the Queensland Government shows it is not taking the criticisms by experts seriously, and is not making genuine efforts to prevent severe decline of Black-throated finch.
Australia has lost three animal species to extinction in the last decade. More are getting closer to the edge. Australia has to get serious about protecting the habitat of endangered species or face carrying the title of world leaders of animal extinction.
Further information:
Hear me rant about this on Radio National last week
Read the excellent overview of why Adani's conservation area won't protect the Black-throated Finch
Read our recent papers:
Reside, A.E., Cosgrove, A.J., Pointon, R., Trezise, J., Watson, J.E.M., Maron, M., 2019. How to send a finch extinct. Environmental Science & Policy 94, 163-173.
Mula Laguna, J., Reside, A.E., Kutt, A., Grice, A.C., Buosi, P., Vanderduys, E.P., Taylor, M., Schwarzkopf, L., 2019. Conserving the endangered Black-throated Finch southern subspecies: what do we need to know? Emu - Austral Ornithology, 1-15.