NT environmentalists ‘gobsmacked’ at federal green light to bulldoze nearly 3,000 hectares of tropical savanna | Northern Territory

Environment Minister Murray Watt has given the green light to bulldoze almost 3,000 hectares of tropical savannah in the Northern Territory without assessment under Australia’s nature laws.

The Top End Pastoral Company development would clear 2,723 hectares of woodland – an area 10 times the size of the Sydney CBD – on Claravale Farm and Station, in the Daly River region, for crops including sorghum and cotton.

The region is home to endangered species such as the ghost bat, Australia’s largest predatory bat.

_{Subscribe: Email AU Breaking News}

Environmental groups and a tropical savannah science expert have expressed dismay at the minister’s decision to declare the development is not a controlled action – meaning it can proceed without an assessment under Australian laws over its potential impact on threatened species and ecosystems. This follows long-standing concerns that the clearance of pastoral lands has rarely been assessed under national laws.

The government said that after “careful consideration” the minister had assessed that the project was unlikely to have a significant environmental impact.

The decision was released by the Federal Environment Department last Wednesday, as Watt announced that US mining company Alcoa would be granted a national interest exemption to continue clearing its bauxite mining operations in the Jarrah Forest in northern Western Australia.

The Environment Center of the NT (ECNT) said the decision “effectively gives the green light to the destruction of the likely habitat of 13 threatened species, including Gouldian finches, freshwater sawfish, pig-nosed turtles, red goshawks and ghost bats”.

“We are absolutely stunned by this decision, which makes a mockery of Labor’s promise to fix our broken nature laws,” said ECNT executive director Kirsty Howey.

“If projects of this scale – aimed at bulldozing thousands of hectares of the great Australian savannah and the habitats of 13 threatened species – don’t trigger a federal review, what will?

“We are considering all legal avenues regarding how national nature laws are applied in the Northern Territory.”

Top End Pastoral Company has proposed a three-stage development of its properties covering an area of ​​over 7,000 hectares.

The plans submitted to the federal government were for the second stage, covering an area of ​​approximately 4,585 hectares. The total area that can be cleared for this stage was revised downward in last week’s decision to 2,723 hectares in order to avoid certain wildlife corridors and habitats.

The company has also undertaken land clearing under a separate Northern Territory Government permit for the first stage of the development, which covers an area of ​​approximately 1,200 hectares.

A spokesperson for the Federal Environment Department said the minister’s decision took into account the combined impact of the proposed clearing stages, including clearing that had already taken place on the site as part of the first stage.

Factors considered in the assessment included the design of the proposed clearing areas, the extent of the clearing within the total development envelope, the availability of intact habitat within the wider project area and the measures proposed by Top End Pastoral Company to avoid and mitigate habitat impacts.

Claravale Station has caves which are known roosting sites for a large colony of ghost bats and is one of six known maternity roosts for the species in the NT.

Known roosting habitat is outside the development zone, but ECNT said it remained concerned because surveys had only been carried out over a small area. Howey said advice from the NT Department of Environment suggested the development would be within two kilometers of known roosting sites, which were home to about 18 per cent of the NT’s known ghost bat population. She said the group was also concerned about the proposal’s impact on foraging habitat.

Scientists are still learning more about the eating habits of ghost bats, but these animals are known to fly for miles in search of food.

Deakin University tropical savannah expert Professor Euan Ritchie said Australians had “inherited one of the largest intact and biodiverse savannah ecosystems remaining on Earth”.

“Once Australia’s tropical savannahs are cleared on an industrial scale using bulldozers and chains, they won’t come back in our lifetime,” he said.

The ministry spokesperson said “any referrals under the EPBC Act should not have a significant impact on domestically protected matters or require further assessment and approval before proceeding”.

“By refining the project design, the proponent avoided clearing key areas of habitat and reduced potential impacts. »

The spokesperson said the developer’s referral of the project for assessment and “careful consideration” by the minister “shows how reforms to the EPBC Act mean the clearing of agricultural land must comply with the same rules and standards as other industries”.

Top End Pastoral Company declined to comment.