7.9.2010 - ‘DEVILS IN DANGER’ REPORT RELEASED FOR THREATENED SPECIES DAY
Community conservation group Still Wild Still Threatened is today marking National Threatened Species Day with the launch of a new report, ‘Devils in Danger' - an investigation into the threatened species of the Upper Florentine.
The report presents data from threatened species surveys the organisation has conducted in the Upper Florentine valley over the last six months. Using infra red cameras, Still Wild Still Threatened has recorded the presence of several endangered Tasmanian devils and rare spotted-tailed quolls in proposed logging coupes. To download a copy of the report, follow this link, http://www.stillwildstillthreatened.org/resources/devils-danger-investig...
A group of concerned scientists, including Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick and Peter McQuillan from the University of Tasmania, have backed the report's recommendations in a letter to State and Federal politicians, calling for the protection of threatened species habitat.
"Habitat loss, roadkill and the facial tumour disease are the big three pressures driving Tasmanian devils to the brink of extinction. Saving the devil's natural habitat is essential to the species' long term survival and equally important as the efforts to manage the cancer crisis afflicting the population," said Dr McQuillan.
Forestry Tasmania and the Forest Practices Authority are required to undertake threatened species surveys prior to logging and formulate prescriptions for species most at risk. However, Mr Hill said this has not been done for the devils in the Upper Florentine coupes and it was up to community groups to identify critical habitat for threatened species.
"The government doesn't look for threatened species, so they don't see threatened species and apparently don't harm threatened species when they clearfell an old growth forest. It's a case of hear no evil, see no evil, do no evil and that's not good enough for a species on the brink of extinction, like the Tasmanian devil," said Mr Hill.
"It is sadly ironic that this destruction of pristine wildlife habitat is occurring in the Upper Florentine - the valley where the last known thylacine was captured. The date of National Threatened Species Day, 7th September, commemorates the death of that last thylacine in 1936. Seven decades later we are seeing the largest surviving marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian devil, facing extinction," said Mr Hill.
Mr Hill said the logging industry was exempt from compliance with the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
"It's a farce that we have Commonwealth legislation that on the one hand protects the devil and lists it as Endangered, while still allowing the logging industry to destroy critical habitat," said Mr Hill.
