Monday 16 March 2009

Roadmap for a sustainable Far North

CAFNEC (Cairns and Far North Environment Centre) has released its prescription for sustainable development in Far North Queensland.

"During this election CAFNEC urges voters and politicians alike to embrace the protection and better management of the Far North environment," Campaign Director, Steve Ryan says.

He says that good environmental management underpins economic prosperity and our way of life. "Urgent action on a range of areas is required to safeguard a sustainable future," says Ryan.

CAFNEC's roadmap has been collated from views and advice of a wide variety of community groups and individuals. Inappropriate development and its effects on our remaining habitat and wildlife remain a paramount concern, CAFNEC says, and also for many communities across the region.

"The disaster of False Cape and the current development frenzy in the Innisfail area threaten the coastal habitats of the endangered Cassowary, as well as our regional character and lifestyle," Steve Ryan says.

"For far too long successive State Governments have overseen a decline in our natural landscapes of the Far North. Long term Cairns residents can remember when Cassowaries could be seen on suburban rainforest trails. Now these great birds are gone from Cairns and we see Wallabies trapped by run-away development in the Northern and Southern suburbs of Cairns."

"Across the region we see Cassowaries dying on our roads and pushed out by ongoing development of their habitat. Until State Governments place habitat protection at the centre of sustainable development we will continue to lose precious wildlife that symbolise our region in the eyes of our communities and the world," says Ryan.

CAFNEC predicts that the Wet Tropics and the Great Barrier Reef will suffer significant damage from climate change impacts, despite any measures able to be taken today.

"In order to secure a future for these two world-class pillars of our regional environment and economy we must ensure these systems remain healthy and can continue to sustain the region," Steve Ryan said.

Here's CAFNEC's policy document, and the key policy recommendations...

Climate change
  • Commit to the inclusion of regional greenhouse gas reduction strategies and targets within an appropriate statutory instrument, such as amending the newly released FNQ Regional Plan 2009-2031 accordingly

Preserving ecological function and improving landscape scale resilience

  • Provide dedicated statutory protection of wildlife corridors identified in the FNQ Regional Plan 2009-2031, triggered by development assessment and environmental planning processes.

  • Implement appropriate conservation management arrangements for private land holders including conservation covenants, cooperative management and other agreements, land for wildlife, Nature Refuges.

  • Local governments be proactively supported in providing rates-based incentives for voluntary conservation measures on freehold land

  • A commitment to actively promote and fully resource voluntary conservation measures for all privately held tenures in the Wet Tropics, Gulf and Cape York.

Coastal protection

  • Protecting local icons:
    Buy back and rehabilitate Ella Bay

  • Support strong local government plans for coastal communities with high projected growth rates or where threatened species impacts are escalating - e.g. Daintree, Innisfail.

  • Reform the Integrated Planning Act 1997:
    Cancel or sunset (after a fixed period not exceeding two years) all pre-IPA approvals, re-assess under current standards of environmental and coastal protection if there is a wish to proceed with the development.

  • All new and uncommenced development proposals must be subject to the same current standards of regulatory controls and environmental protection, regardless of tenure, zoning or unused historic approvals.

Water

  • No commitment to new dams in the FNQ Water Supply Strategy. In particular the proposed Nullinga Dam on the Walsh River.

  • No dam on the Gilbert River, or other Gulf rivers.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

it scares the shit out of when i read the comments and current leanings of people who would have once been labor voters but are now intending to vote lnp, mostly out of protest.

wake up.

this is the liberal national party, in queensland - it doesn't get any further right wing than that. not in this country anyway.

fair enough, desley and co. have long been arrogant and the yacht club farce was disgusting. the eventual "resolution" in demolishing the building and dumping the remnants on the uni grounds was abhorrent.

but we must look further than this:

where are the lnp's plans for environmental conservation, especially up here in this, some of australia's most sensitive environment?

what about their stance on uranium mining?

what about their arrogance in threatening to walk away from the national murray-darling water sharing pact? thus ending our water sharing agreement on which could further push that once mighty water source into oblivion.

i really hope you can look further than such issues as the yacht club and think about where we could end up (again) if this political party comes to power in queensland.

Unknown said...

So we re-elect them and let them get away with their lies and incompetence ? I think our local members do not represent us well and should be voted out. If you don't want to vote LNP, vote green, independent, whatever...I think the Yacht Club debacle and the indifference and double-dealing from our local members is enough reason to get rid of them. I do not think this is an issue they should be allowed to get away with.

Did federal Labor with Labor governments in all 3 effected states manage to sort out the Murray-darling issue ?

I am no LNP supporter, but I definitely do not support this Labor government which is just about as right-wing as the LNP and has been around for too long.

Vote for good local representativess, not for political parties.

KitchenSlut said...

It scares the shit out of you Cam? Our society has thrived and prospered with regular democratic change and mucking out of the Augean stables every so often for some time but this particular one scares you mate? I think thats maybe a reflection on you mate?

It always has emotional consequences for immature personalities such as yourself who have a basic problem with the concept of change and that, in a democracy, you are a genius if you are right more than half the time?

What we need to know herew Cam is what scares you as there is a suspicion of deep paranoia? The LNP is as "right wing as it gets"? Compared to what? Hitler (please dont play that card)? Mugabe? Who? What?

Cam, mate, the only thing scarey here is the workings of your own brain matey .....

Unknown said...

Joel Harrop (LNP) says that the LNP is committed to a review of the Cairns Port City Port South plan.

" If elected I will fight tooth and nail to retain all of the waterfront land for the people of Cairns ."

I would like to know what the present member for Cairns has to say about that. Apart from her cynical lie that she has saved the old Cairns Yacht Club building.

The fight was not just about the old building, also about what would be done with the waterfront.

Wall to wall Harbour Light style high rises or an attractive world-class waterfront area for the people and visitors of Cairns ?