WWF - Land clearing 'kills most all animals'

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*
Perilous Times

WWF - Land clearing 'kills most all animals'*

February 28, 2007 04:25am
Article from: AAP

THE vast majority of animals affected by land clearing die, said a
report that estimates 104 million mammals, birds and reptiles are dead
or likely to die because of legal land clearing between 1998 and 2005.

The WWF report was written by a former deputy director of the Australian
Museum, Dr Hal Cogger; the director of the Institute of Wildlife
Research at the University of Sydney, Professor Chris Dickman; and one
of the country's most senior and respected bird scientists, Professor
Hugh Ford.

They said that when an area of native bushland was lost, most of the
resident wildlife did not move to another area.

"In reality, the vast majority of animals will die. Most will die
quickly but others survive for a time before succumbing to starvation,
predation or other fates.

"Some individuals can be expected to die of injury or trauma sustained
during the clearing process. For survivors, clearing removes shelter
from the extremes of weather, cover from predators, depletes or destroys
food resources, and disrupts the familiar home range and social
environments that individuals experienced pre-clearing."

It is the first attempt to calculate the damage land clearing has done
to wildlife numbers in NSW and has probably underestimated the number of
animals killed because it excludes damage done by illegal land clearing.

The NSW Government has repeatedly promised to end broadscale land
clearing but has been criticised by environment groups and the state's
Auditor-General for allowing farmers to flout native vegetation laws,
for failing to adequately monitor and map native vegetation, and for
allowing some kinds of native vegetation to be cleared.

The Minister for Natural Resources, Ian Macdonald, said satellite
imagery showed the amount of land clearing was much lower than the
figures used by WWF.