Environmentalists Halt Leard Forest Clearance for the Winter

13th June Aus­tralia White­haven Coal yes­ter­day announced it would halt its clear­ing of Leard State For­est until Sep­tem­ber fol­low­ing an injunc­tion in the NSW Land and Envi­ron­ment Court by the Maules Creek Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil.

The group, aid­ed by the EDO, specif­i­cal­ly appealed over the fact that many ani­mals in the for­est hiber­nate over win­ter and there­fore were more like­ly to be killed by clear­ing dur­ing win­ter months.

The com­pa­ny vol­un­tar­i­ly called a halt to clear­ing yes­ter­day after­noon, just as the court’s deci­sion on the injunc­tion was due, until the results of a full hear­ing on the mat­ter.

Maules Creek Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil spokesper­son, Phil Laird said, ‘We are pleased that White­haven has been forced to respond to our legit­i­mate chal­lenge in the court by today under­tak­ing to stop clear­ing in Leard State For­est’.

The Maules Creek Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil is argu­ing that White­haven is in breach of its devel­op­ment con­sent by winter/spring clear­ing of the for­est. A breach of devel­op­ment con­sent con­tra­venes the Envi­ron­men­tal Plan­ning and Assess­ment Act 1979.

‘This out­come today sends a strong mes­sage to coal min­ing com­pa­nies across NSW and to the NSW gov­ern­ment: if they will not enforce the law, then the com­mu­ni­ty is pre­pared to step up and do it them­selves’ Mr Laird said.

‘We appre­ci­ate the action tak­en by White­haven today and we will be prepar­ing to vig­or­ous­ly pur­sue the full legal chal­lenge,’ he added.

The new Maules Creek coalmine project involves a total clear­ing of 1664 hectares of for­est, which cur­rent­ly pro­vides habi­tat for threat­ened species includ­ing bats, koalas, for­est owls, the Swift Par­rot and the Regent Hon­eyeater.

The Nature Con­ser­va­tion Coun­cil of NSW has wel­comed White­haven Coal’s deci­sion to adhere to the con­di­tions of its devel­op­ment con­sent.

‘This is a clear vic­to­ry for com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who have been work­ing tire­less­ly to pro­tect this for­est and the region’s water resources,’ cam­paigns direc­tor Kate Smol­s­ki said.

‘The deci­sion to stop win­ter clear­ing does not end the fight to save Leard For­est, but it does at least give hiber­nat­ing native ani­mals a fight­ing chance to escape the bull­doz­ers.

‘It is regret­table the NSW gov­ern­ment did not enforce the con­di­tions of its own con­sent for this atro­cious mine, leav­ing Maules Creek Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil lit­tle alter­na­tive but to take legal action.

‘State and fed­er­al laws have failed to pro­tect this impor­tant nat­ur­al area, demon­strat­ing the need for deep reform to pro­tect impor­tant nat­ur­al places from coal min­ing.

‘Until that reform occurs, com­mu­ni­ty groups will con­tin­ue to seek rem­e­dy in the courts, and ordi­nary peo­ple will feel com­pelled to take direct action in the for­est.

‘The Maules Creek mine will tear out the heart of Leard For­est, destroy one of the largest rem­nant areas of wildlife habi­tat in west­ern NSW, threat­en ground­wa­ter resources, and have a last­ing neg­a­tive impact on the local com­mu­ni­ty of Maules Creek. This project should nev­er have been approved.’

Greens NSW MP and envi­ron­ment spokesper­son, Dr Mehreen Faruqi has also wel­comed news.

‘This deci­sion… proves com­mu­ni­ty con­cerns were jus­ti­fied. It is clear that White­haven saw the writ­ing on the wall and went for an under­tak­ing before it was ordered to by the court,’ Dr Faruqi said.

‘Unfor­tu­nate­ly, much clear­ing has already tak­en place.

‘I have seen with my own eyes just yes­ter­day the sec­tion of the for­est bull­dozed by White­haven Coal, pre­sum­ably in antic­i­pa­tion of a sus­pen­sion.

‘It is out­ra­geous that White­haven Coal was allowed to under­take win­ter clear­ing in the first place. This was com­plete­ly unnec­es­sary.

‘There needs to be an inves­ti­ga­tion into how these approvals were grant­ed by the NSW gov­ern­ment in the first place, as large tracts of endan­gered eco­log­i­cal com­mu­ni­ties have been cleared and can­not be replaced or off­set.

‘I was also dis­turbed to see valu­able pub­lic resources being used to ben­e­fit a min­ing com­pa­ny, with the gov­ern­ment order­ing police to set up road­blocks on pub­lic roads and search cars.

‘The gov­ern­ment should be pro­tect­ing the Leard For­est, not big coal.

‘In a demo­c­ra­t­ic soci­ety, the pub­lic have the right to protest peace­ful­ly and I have been inspired by the activists stand­ing up to pro­tect our envi­ron­ment and our wildlife.

‘The Greens and many in the com­mu­ni­ty are opposed to this mas­sive coal min­ing project because of its destruc­tive impacts on bio­di­ver­si­ty, cul­tur­al her­itage and its mas­sive con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate change: allow­ing clear­ing dur­ing the win­ter months fur­ther com­pound­ed these dam­ag­ing impacts.

‘Con­grat­u­la­tions to the grass­roots com­mu­ni­ty groups and the Envi­ron­men­tal Defend­ers Office that brought for­ward this legal chal­lenge. The Greens will con­tin­ue cam­paign­ing to stop this coal mine com­plete­ly’ she con­clud­ed.