Habitat Audits

I have lifted the comment made by Blue Chaffinch (there will be some among you who recognise the Canary Islands connection) and put it on the main page.

Tristan's company exists by contracting to (mainly) local bodies, e.g city and regional councils, in the UK who have to undergo an independent audit (independent of any government agency) of the habitat whenever habitat change is desired (by that particular local body council); this could take 12 months or longer.
The entire case, for and against, would then go to the equivalent of a national Environmental Protection Agency which might take a further 12 months to make a decision.

You will all note his incredulity that mangrove clearing is allowed in Queensland without any public input at all, let alone a habitat review by an independent authority, although DERM (Dept of Environment and Resource Management) through it's Fisheries Management arm was apparently closely consulted.

Throughout Europe and in most North American states an independent and ecologically rigorous audit is required by law in cases such as this; seems Queensland is quite a way behind world's best practice.

So, as Brian Venables suggests, we should move towards a new regime of habitat auditing BEFORE habitats are threatened.

Andy Anderson,
Birding Cairns.