Thread by @megcevans

While our focus has understandably been on the #AustraliaBushfires and the #Adani #coal project, another huge mine is due to be built soon, right on top of @BimbleboxNR smh.com.au/politics/queen…

@BimbleboxNR This project has been granted State and Federal environmental approval, largely on the proviso of that impacts on @BimbleboxNR and its biodiversity will be "offset". I've described these issues here:

https://twitter.com/megcevans/status/1202727796281233408

Apart from the issues with #offsets, can I just remind you that @BimbleboxNR is a privately owned and managed protected area, that the Queensland Government formally recognised for its biodiversity values theconversation.com/no-refuge-when…

Nature refuges, like @BimbleboxNR are not excempt from mining. Yet their values are still counted towards Australia's protected area targets under the Convention for Biological Diversity , and the Sustainable Development Goals australiasnaturehub.gov.au/action-invento…

@BimbleboxNR Thats a bit shit, right? Private landholders voluntarily protect their land and water, and the Government takes credit for it?

Back in 2013, Vanessa Adams @UTAS_ and Katie Moon @UNSWCanberra interviewed Qld nature refuge owners and documented their concerns about contradictory private protected area policies in Australia sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@UTAS_ @UNSWCanberra These are landholders who are *voluntarily* protecting biodiversity, often alongside sustainable agriculture. These are the innovators, leaders and entrepreneoours of the land and ag sectors, who we should be supporting and championing.

Instead, thanks to this country's obsession with digging stuff up and shipping it overseas to be burnt, their efforts are literally being bulldozed.

Last year, the @QldGov introduced a new class of protected areas under the Nature Conservation Act called Special Wildlife Reserves. SWRs explicitly *exclude* mining environment.des.qld.gov.au/wildlife/natur…

Could @BimbleboxNR become a Special Wildlife Reserve? Are we only going to see SWRs granted in locations that are not suitable for #coal mining?

In the meantime, Queenslanders can sign this petition that @LeeanneEnoch will consider in July this year. parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assemb…