Environment
Threatened Eagles program falls behind schedule
THREATENED EAGLES PROGRAM FALLS BEHIND SCHEDULE
Cassy O’Connor MP
Greens Environment Spokesperson
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
The Tasmanian Greens today expressed concern that two reviews into the effectiveness of critical threatened species recovery programs, including one for Tasmanian eagles, had fallen well behind schedule.
Greens Environment spokesperson Cassy O’Connor MP said an Auditor General report released today found that reviews for the Threatened Tasmanian Eagles Recovery Plan 2006–2010 and the Fauna recovery plan: forty-spotted pardalote were due in 2011 but had not been completed.
“The Threatened Eagles Recovery Plan expired well over a year ago, and the Auditor General has identified that there’s been no follow up to see how effective it was or whether a new plan is needed,” Ms O’Connor.
“The fact that nothing has happened suggests that either the Minister has dropped the ball on threatened species, or that eagle numbers have recovered and that there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Brian Wightman is the Minister with portfolio responsibility for the fates of the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, the white-bellied sea eagle and the forty-spotted pardalote, and he should implement new recovery plans as a matter of priority.”
“These plans, which are aimed at protecting known nest sites and eliminating threats to habitat, are crucial for preventing the threatened and endangered species from disappearing altogether.”
“It would be a tragedy too terrible to contemplate if our iconic wedge-tailed eagle, and its cousin the white bellied sea eagle, were to go the way of the Tasmanian tiger,” Ms O’Connor said.