Time to act on land clearing and Living Rivers in the Territory
31 Jul 2008
WWF has urged parties and candidates contesting the upcoming Northern Territory election to commit to ending major land clearing and protect Living Rivers.
"Neither major party has yet committed to ending major land clearing, despite the Territory having arguably the weakest land clearing laws in Australia', said Stuart Blanch, WWF's Northern Landscapes Manager.
The leading conservation organisation today said stopping major land clearing was the cheapest, easiest and most effective way to quickly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
"The Federal Government's Green Paper for an Emissions Trading System said the states are responsible for regulating land clearing. It is up to the next Territory Government to rise to the challenge”, Dr Blanch said.
"The Top End's vast savannas should instead be managed as a giant carbon storehouse to help fight climate change, and not cleared. Small-scale clearing must also be tightly managed.”
WWF is calling on parties to commit to a new land clearing law – a Native Vegetation Act - to end major land clearing and protect wildlife and rivers, such as the Daly and Adelaide Rivers.
"Major land clearing has a devastating impact on the Territory's wildlife and threatens our unique lifestyle and our natural assets".
More than 70,000 hectares of native vegetation have been approved for clearing across the Territory since 2002 - that's 35,000 times the size of the MCG.
Scientists predict clearing then burning this native vegetation would kill most of the estimated 12 million animals living there, and cause about 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution.
"Tourists and fishermen aren't going to come to visit rivers like those in the Murray-Darling.
Recent figures in the Federal Government's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2006 showed land clearing produced more than one million tonnes of greenhouse emissions in the Territory.Per capita emissions are higher in the Top End than anywhere else in the country – 76.4 tonnes per person per year.
For more information contact:
Dr Stuart Blanch, Northern Landscapes Manager, WWF-Australia:
0427 957 868
Julian Murphy, WWF Press Officer:
0418 970 778
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The Top End of the Northern Territory is one of Australia's most iconic and valuable landscapes. It's the home of big barramundi and crocodiles, vast uncleared grasslands and woodlands full of wildlife that has largely disappeared from southern Australia. It is a stronghold for Indigenous communities that maintain the world's oldest living culture, an important part of which is looking after Country. But major land clearing is threatening to destroy these precious assets and inflict irreparable damage on the Territory's unique wildlife and lifestyle.
