World Heritage or clearfelled for cane and cotton?
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The findings of the Natural Heritage Significance report clearly support the view of the conservation movement that Cape York Peninsular is a priceless treasure in a world that has been chopped, hacked, cleared and drained beyond recognition.
Unfortunately, many of the industries that have been responsible for environmental degradation elsewhere in Australia have now turned their attention towards the tropical savannas and wild rivers of Cape York Peninsular.
In recent times it has become apparent that sections of the cotton industry, armed with pest resistant genetically modified cotton strains, have eyed Cape York’s vast savannas and seasonally bountiful water supplies as providing the ingredients for the expansion of the cotton industry.
Recently, the Cooperative Research Centre for Cotton released a report that identified a number of locations on Cape York Peninsular that would be suitable for cotton production.
Similarly, rumours abound of the planned expansion of sugar cane cultivation onto the southern Peninsular.
The expansion of either of these crops onto the Peninsular would require thousands of hectares of forest and woodlands to be cleared and for vast irrigation works to be constructed. This cannot be allowed.
Meanwhile, on the west coast of the Peninsular, proposals have been forwarded to government to construct a large, open cut clay mine upstream of the famous west coast wetlands.
It is for these reasons that the Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Cairns and Far North Environment Centre are calling on the Queensland and Commonwealth Government’s to put in place a Cape York wide ‘Conservation Plan’ that prohibits a range of destructive development activities such as landclearing, commercial logging and the construction of dams and weirs that are incompatible with the protection of this vast wilderness domain.
We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past on Cape York Peninsular. Mistakes such as the destruction of the once great Murray Darling River Basin and the $60 billion clean up that will be required to bring it back from the brink of ecological and economic disaster.
For this reason, why not email Queensland Premier Peter Beattie and Commonwealth Environment Minister Dr David Kemp and call on them to create a visionary Conservation Plan for the whole of Cape York Peninsular that rules out destructive activities such as land clearing the construction of dams and weirs and support the development of industries that maintain the conservation values identified in the Natural Heritage Significance report.
Premier Beattie's email – premiers@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Minister Kemp's e-mail – D.Kemp.MP@aph.gov.au_
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