Environment Victoria recently released a report which analyses the environmental policy trajectory of the Baillieu Government since its election in 2010.
Overall, the Victoria’s Environment: A State in Reverse report paints a picture of a state in environmental decline, with a government out of touch with the interests and attitudes of Victorians. The report catalogues a series of policy changes and actions that negatively impact on the environment, and every region of the state is being affected.
A regional snapshot of the actions of the Baillieu Government can be read here and the full report is available on the Environment Victoria web site.
Victorian National Parks Association calls for action
The Victorian National Parks Association is requesting conservationists take action to maintain the federal government’s role in overseeing matters of national environmental significance and not to transfer many of its powers to the state as is being proposed in a plan being discussed at the present time.
“The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1998 (the EPBC Act) is the Australian Government’s central piece of environmental legislation. It provides a legal framework to protect and manage nationally and internationally important flora, fauna, ecological communities and heritage places.
We believe the Act needs strengthening, not weakening because of pressure from big business, mining and coalition state governments, which do not act in the national interest – they are, after all, states.”
You can take action by completing a form on the Places You Love web site that makes it easy to send an email to the Prime Minister.
Proposal to expand the Great Otway National Park to protect the Anglesea Heathland
The Geelong Environment Council strongly believes that as compensation for the immense subsidies received both for power use and in monetary terms by Alcoa from both Federal and State Governments the company should ensure that the un-mined area of the Anglesea Heath is protected for the future, by adding it to the Great Otway National Park.
The GEC has requested that concerned people write to State and Federal politicians expressing their concerns and requesting that Minister Tony Burke and Premier Ted Baillieu be urged to consider this proposal. There is a form on the GEC site that simplifies the process of sending emails to Minister Tony Burke, Premier Ted Baillieu and Managing Director of Alcoa, Alan Cransberg.
Suburban trees save native birds
A world-first study in the Australian national capital shows that the amount of native trees on suburban streets has a big effect on the numbers and types of birds in the area.
“We found that suburbs with more than 30 per cent native street trees have 11 per cent more bird species of all types than those with exotic street trees,” say Dr Karen Ikin and Professor David Lindenmayer from The ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) and The Australian National University.
“More birds were also found in nature reserves next to the suburbs. This shows that how we manage our urban areas has a significant effect on wildlife in surrounding locations.”
The full report can be found on the CEED web site.