- Target:
- Australian Federal Department of Environment and Energy, and Qld Department of Environment (DEHP)
- Region:
- GLOBAL
- Website:
- www.facebook.com
The Spectacled Flying Fox is listed as vulnerable under both the EPBC Act and the Qld Nature Conservation Act. Advice that this proposed development by GA Group will likely destroy the Spectacled Flying Fox camp comes from two of Australia’s leading authorities on Spectacled Flying Foxes, Dr David Westcott and Dr Martin Cohen.
The Spectacled Flying Fox population is in serious rapid decline, and protection of their camps is paramount. The Spectacled Flying Fox has declined from a few hundred thousand to 150,000 in 2005, and to just 65,000 in Dec 2014. Dr David Westcott calculates the population is declining at a rate of 6% per year. (Westcott, David; McKeown, Adam ‘Spectacled flying-fox monitoring in the Wet Tropics Region’ National Environmental Research Program, Tropical Research Hub, CSIRO 2014 http://www.nerptropical.edu.au/sites/default/files/publications/files/NERP-TE-PROJECT-3.4-FINAL-REPORT-FLYING-FOX-COMPLETE.pdf Figure 2. p5 and p11).
The Spectacled Flying Fox is a keystone species responsible for seed dispersal. Its population decline, or even extinction, will have serious detrimental flow-on impacts on the Wet Tropics in Far North Queensland, which currently has World Heritage Area status.
We, the undersigned, hereby call on the Federal Government and Queensland State Government to prevent the development of a hotel apartment complex on the land at 163 Abbott St, Cairns, on the basis that it will impact significantly and detrimentally on the nationally registered Spectacled Flying Fox camp located opposite at the Cairns City Library, but also located on this proposed development site.
We also call on the Federal Government and Queensland State Government to purchase this land and set up a sanctuary for Spectacled Flying Foxes with Interpretive Centre, Viewing Platform, Flying Fox Hospital and Aviary, and kiosk-café.
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The Save the Cairns City Library Spectacled Flying Fox Camp petition to Australian Federal Department of Environment and Energy, and Qld Department of Environment (DEHP) was written by Geoff Holland and is in the category Environment at GoPetition.