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- 4 September 2002
Threatened Species Protection
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Speakers - Cohen Mr Ian
Business - Adjournment
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Page: 4545
The Hon. IAN COHEN [9.26 p.m.]: This week is National Threatened Species Week and 7 September is National Threatened Species Day. This offers a good opportunity to talk about Chaelundi State Forest in northern New South Wales. Eleven years ago today a precedent-setting legal case was being heard in the Land and Environment Court. At the same time conservationists were blocking logging from proceeding in the old-growth forest of Chaelundi. It was a desperate and dangerous forest blockade. The Chaelundi forest was declared by the Land and Environment Court judge to be a veritable arboreal zoo. It is unbelievably rich in wildlife and magnificent old growth and is home to many species of animals in danger of extinction including koalas, masked owls, spotted tail quolls and yellow-bellied gliders. For this reason I am incredulous that State Forests of New South Wales has scheduled part of the Chaelundi old growth for logging later this year.
In 1998 expert panels of scientists commissioned by the New South Wales and Federal governments identified the minimum area of habitat that must be protected for populations of threatened animals to survive. They recommended the inclusion of sufficient habitat in reserves for: 1,224 breeding pairs of masked owls yet only enough habitat for one-fifth of that number has been protected; 3,781 breeding females of spotted tail quolls but sufficient habitat for less than one-fifth of them is reserved; and 9,240 breeding pairs of yellow-bellied gliders in three discrete populations yet sufficient habitat for less than one-fifth of that number has been protected. At least 4,000 hectares of undisturbed contiguous forest should be protected for each koala population to ensure the protection of a minimum population of at least 500. Corridors are required to link smaller isolated populations to bigger populations in order to prevent local extinction. However, sufficient habitat has not been protected to meet these requirements.
Australia has an abysmal record of species extinction. More mammals have become extinct in Australia over the past 200 years than in any other country in the world. In the forests of New South Wales we continue to destroy the homes and therefore jeopardise the survival of our unique Australian animals. They have lived here since time immemorial-a long time before we arrived-and they surely have a right to exist too. On behalf of the endangered species of New South Wales I call upon the New South Wales Government to protect additional areas of forest and woodland in national parks and in Chaelundi to avoid the extinction of the masked owl, yellow-bellied glider, spotted tail quoll, koala and other endangered species. Those species are Australians like us and they are losing their homes. We humans should not take everything for ourselves: We should leave enough for other species to ensure that they do not become extinct.
Protecting ancient forests will benefit humans as well as the species that live in them. The forests are the lungs of our planet: they maintain stability of climate, protect water catchments ensuring clean drinking water as well as protecting from floods and droughts, and they contain the gene pool that holds the foods, medicines and industrial products of the future. If only we humans would think beyond our own narrow, immediate interests and include the other species in our concerns, this would benefit us as much as it would them. We are all strands in the same web of life. If humans allow these creatures to disappear, the web becomes frayed and tattered. I put it to the House that without these wonderful creatures humans will die of a great loneliness of spirit. It is the job of this Parliament to protect these critical habitats and species. We know what must be done. All that is missing is the political will. Extinction? It is the choice of this House.
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