Documents prepared by a coal company planning a massive expansion near Mudgee admit the project poses a threat to habitat “critical to the survival” of a local koala population.
The population has been recognised by the NSW Government as being resilient to the effects of climate change.
The comments were made in an amendment report for Yancoal’s Moolarben coal expansion which was published yesterday. Yancoal’s amendment report was in response to fierce community criticism of the company’s original proposal and from the government's own biodiversity experts.
From the amendment report, appendix C, Page 245:
“The revised Project would result in clearance of approximately 113.02 ha… of Koala habitat across the valley floor, reducing the area of habitat and foraging resources available to the species and potentially impacting movement from east to west. Koalas would be displaced over the life of the Project as habitat is progressively cleared. The habitat within the Development Footprint was determined to potentially constitute habitat critical to the survival of the species.”
Despite reducing the size of the planned expansion, Yancoal’s revised proposal would still clear habitat critical for not just the koala, but also the critically endangered regent honeyeater and the endangered gang-gang cockatoo.
The report comes as the NSW Minns Government calls for community submissions for its NSW Koala Strategy, aimed at bringing the species back from the brink of extinction in the state.
If built, the project will also:
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Destroy habitat where the national endangered Gang-gang Cockatoos and several other threatened native species have been recorded
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Dig four open cut coal pits in a unique valley surrounded on three sides by Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve.
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Contribute about 65 million tonnes of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
Lock the Gate Alliance National Coordinator Carmel Flint said, “This revised project proposal by Yancoal is still, by its own admission, going to clear habitat critical to the survival of the koala and the regent honeyeater.
“The timing of this report highlights the contradiction between the NSW Minns Government consulting on its Koala Strategy while also allowing big coal expansions that threaten koala populations to move through the assessment process.
“Koalas, and other threatened species, don’t stand a chance if the Minns Government continues to allow coal companies to clear habitat that is critical to their survival while also digging up this polluting fossil fuel that is driving climate change.
“NSW’s environment is still recovering from the devastating black summer bushfires of 2019. The Minns Government ought to rule out expanded coal mines in habitat critical to the survival of koalas.”
ENDS