By KATH GANNAWAY
THE Wilderness Society is calling on the federal and state environment ministers to do more to save leadbeater’s possum from extinction.
Delivering a 4000-signature petition to Federal Minister Greg Hunt on 1 July, the Wilderness Society called on the minister to use federal powers to suspend logging in the central highlands habitat of the possum.
Their renewed calls follow the recent release of The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012 by CSIRO Publishing where the authors John Woinarski, Andrew Burbidge and Peter Harrison have rated the possum up from endangered to critically endangered.
The Federal Government is also considering submissions in regard to the eligibility of leadbeater’s for inclusion on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act as critically endangered, and has appointed a Threatened Species Commissioner.
Wilderness Society campaigner Kevi Sanyu said the petitions had come in from around the nation, requesting the Federal Minister to step up and suspend logging.
He also called on Victorian Environment Minister Ryan Smith to step up.
“As environment minister, his primary role should be to advocate for the suspension of logging the habitat to ensure the species is not lost forever,” he said.
“Unfortunately, since he now sits under the portfolio of (Agriculture Minister) Peter Walsh, he does not have as much clout, or the powers, to curb the extinction trajectory of the possum,” he said.
Minister Smith has defended his and his government’s response to the possum’s plight, saying they had in April accepted in full the 13 recommendations of the Leadbeater’s Possum Advisory Group and committed to investing $11 million for their implementation.
He said the recommendations included timber harvest exclusion zones in a 200-metre radius around each site where leadbeater’s possum are detected, harvesting exclusion zones within 100metres of modelled old growth ash forest, retention harvesting in 50 per cent of the areas of ash harvested within the leadbeater’s possum range, starting this month, and postponement of harvesting for two years in areas that have a high probability of being occupied by leadbeater’s possum to identify colonies.
