TAKE ACTION FOR OUR WILDLIFE TODAY

The biodiversity of SEQ is threatened - and that includes we humans. Our wildlife species need the humans who co-exist with them enjoying the same ecosystem services as the wildlife to speak up and contact the governing authorities.

We need each other to continue to enjoy our healthy lifestyle that is so popular. However, if you do not reduce our damaging impact on the natural environment, then we will destroy what we love. If we do not all tell governments that their planning is inadequate then we will lose our iconic and state emblem - the koala - except perhaps for those born in captivity who are unable to survive in natural bushland areas - like Freckles.

FRECKLES pictured aside attended Logan's LEAF event 2010. She is an ambassador to alert us to the plight of all koalas - especially those in SEQ and in all ULDA areas - Greenbank, North Maclean, Flagstone, New Beith, Yarrabilba, Undalla, Ripley and the whole Scenic Rim area which has other threats - mining and quarrying to support the huge population coming our way. CANBERRA was not planned in 6 months. Business as usual is no longer an option.  Consultants for the high density housing proposal at Greenbank suggest that our local koalas are already extinct?

WE know that is not true because we see and hear koalas throughout our area.

WE HAVE TO PROVIDE THE DATA TO ULDA and DERM SO THAT THEY ARE ABLE TO UPDATE ENVIRONMENTAL BACKGROUND STUDIES AS THEY NOW EXIST 

Please send your information to LACAs President This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so we can collate and forward to ULDA and DERM.

Go through all of your photos so we can produce a gallery of our local wildlife and add to our submissions

Come along to the next public meetings - every Wednesday at Greenbank www.save.greenbank.com.au for details.

Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on crop rotation, green manure, compost, biological pest control, and mechanical cultivation to maintain soil productivity and control pests. This however is achieved by excluding the use of synthetic fertilizers and synthetic pesticides; plant growth regulators, livestock feed additives, and genetically modified organisms. Organic farming benefits from the recycling and use of natural products. By supporting local, sustainable and organic farms in your local community you also support the larger community of which we are all a part. Organic farming is the way forward towards a healthier life and a cleaner environment. Words from Navdanya's Diary.

This journal is following the global situation relating to the food crisis, food security, impact of industrial agriculture on biodiversity and places our local - South East Queensland and nationally - food situation within the global context. This online journal by respected Indian scientist and

Biodiversity is at the very heart of the survival of our human race and life on earth as we know it now. What we also know is that our present day activities and ways of living are having an enormous and detrimental impact on the planat and all of its species.

We all need each other to survive - yet we continue to whittle away at little bits - without being able to see the bigger picture.

Some plants within BAHRS SCRUB are unique - existing no where else in the world. Yet these plants are dependant on all surrounding pieces of biodiversity infrastructure. All eleven plants identified in the booklet are recognised as being endangered  by Queensland or Australian governments. Will these plants survive in their natural environment? Or will we clear the busland for human settlement?

How much do you value the bushland and its creatures and what they contribute to our cultural life health and well being?

Are you someone who believes it is still necessary for economic prosperity that we continue to destroy our bushland.  Only 200 years of western 'progress'  may not always be viewed as progress?

LACA is one of the member groups of the SAVE BAHRS SCRUB ALLIANCE. We are all appreciative that our application for funding for this flora booklet was successful with Logan City Council's Envirogrant 2010 program.

Please obtain a copy of the booklet - read and enjoy the beauty of what is uniquely ours in Logan - and look out for the LOCAL AREA PLAN due to be released Monday 8 November 2010 for community consultation. Please involve yourself in this consultation process.

Click here or on the image to be download a cpoy of the booklet from the Save Bahrs Scub Alliance website.

More will be posted when the plan is available 

UNEP launches a new report that states restoring lost and damaged ecosystems—from forests and freshwaters to mangroves and wetlands—can trigger multi-million dollar returns, generate jobs and combat poverty. The report, entitled Dead Planet, Living Planet: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration for Sustainable Development, underlines that far from being a tax on growth and development, many environmental investments in degraded, nature-based assets can generate substantial and multiple returns.

The TUNZA Regional Youth Conference on Biodiversity continued today in Kigali, Rwanda. The conference began on 2 June and will see 35 youth from around all sub-regions of Africa share and discuss biodiversity in Africa.

Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director says

 "Let WED 2010 be a moment-- of many moments in 2010-- when the history books record that the world took note,

 seized the opportunities and deployed its collective knowledge,

abundant science and technology, financial acumen and prowess, intelligence and compassion to

                                         build a global society with value-environmental, social and economic."

LOCAL councils have been given ultimate control over development proposed for koala habitat and charged with increasing habitat areas by 2020 under new State Government laws announced in the Redlands on Saturday. Sustainability Minister Kate Jones and Planning Minister Stirling Hinchliffe visited a koala revegetation site in Capalaba West to announce the two new pieces of legislation, which will dictate how developers and councils use land in order to increase koala habitat substantially by 2020.

 "The new laws will deal with irresponsible planning which has occurred in some places in the past and override existing planning schemes so that koala habitat must be taken into account," Ms Jones said.

 "Councils gave us overwhelming feedback that they were best placed to tailor localised solutions," Mr Hinchliffe said. "The main objective is that planning schemes must incorporate provisions to ensure development in koala areas delivers a net increase in koala habitat by 2020," he added. The new State Planning Regulatory Provisions (SPRP) place strict limits on developers, including banning clearing of mapped koala habitat, offset planting for unavoidable clearing of koala trees at a ratio of five trees planted for every one cleared, and requirements for koala sensitive urban design.

The new State Planning Policy (SPP) will see councils amend their planning schemes to identify and protect koala habitat while retaining and enhancing habitat connectivity with koala corridors. Councils will also have to increase the amount of bushland habitat, ensure koala movement-friendly design and layout for developments and develop a koala conservation strategy, which will be reviewed by the state to show how outcomes are being met.

NEW WEBSITE for BAHRS SCRUB

Construction of new site has begun and is available www.bahrsscrub.org.au.

This is a separate website for our SAVE BAHRS SCRUB CAMPAIGN.

If you are at all interested in the biodiversty values of the unique but fragmented vegetation ecosystems and their inhabitants - native species like koalas,platypus - hanging on in South East Queensland please consider volunteering to help with this campaign.

Whatever skills you have can contribute towards creating broader community understanding of the importance of living in harmony with nature and its life rhythms - instead of bulldozing our way into extinction of many species - to the detriment of the human species.

We are developing a contact list for people to become actively involved in the campaign. If you are willing to contribute your skills. energies and time please email usThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for group membership.

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity - an indication of how endangered many of  the world's species are.

GIST_GREEN_ACCOUNTING

Pavan Sukhdev also has an article Costing the Earth available. He is study leader of the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) project, United Nations

Clean air, fresh water, the flood protection provided by wetlands, the carbon-storage capacity of forests: these are examples of natural systems and processes that we largely take for granted. We consider them 'public goods': they are available to everyone; there is enough to go round; and one person's enjoyment of them does not impede another's. They are not traded in markets, not priced and they are mostly available for free.

New koala planning provisions will be introduced in December 2009 and comprise:

New koala conservation state planning regulatory provisions: the Proposed South East Queensland Koala Conservation State Planning Regulatory Provision ( 746 KB 38p) and proposed koala habitat mapping that will regulate new development in koala habitat areas. You can access the several area maps from this dip page http://www.dip.qld.gov.au/maps/seq-koala-habit-regulatory-maps.html

Map 24 http://www.dip.qld.gov.au/resources/map/koala-regs/koala-sprp-maps-24.pdf does not show any koala habitat in the Flagstone area? Difficult to believe - if you see all the surrounding habitat?  http://www.dip.qld.gov.au/resources/map/koala-regs/proposed-seq-koala-conservation-seqkc-map-24.pdf

Save Bahrs Scrub

Public Meeting Invitation

Do you want to lose unique bushland with koalas, platypus and rare plants to yet more urban development?

This is the proposed fate of Bahrs Scrub.

If your answer is NO!, Gecko, LACA, BREC and Wildlife Logan invite you to attend an important public meeting to be held at:

Windaroo Valley State High School  

Beenleigh Beaudesert Rd, Windaroo

Thursday November 5, 2009 6:30 - 7:30 pm.

The four peak environment groups are determined, with your help, to protect for all time this important and unique area, and hope to establish the Save Bahrs Scrub community group. The Bahrs Scrub precinct, once proposed as a National Park, has been known for more than two decades to be a hotspot for a variety of wildlife, including koala and platypus, and rare vegetation, including newly discovered species.

Despite this knowledge, Bahrs Scrub has been fast-tracked by the SEQ Regional Plan as a Local Development Area within Logan City Council, projected to accommodate 11,000 residents.

Major conservation councils, Gecko - Gold Coast and Hinterland Environment Council, and BREC - Brisbane Region Environment Council, and peak groups, Logan & Albert Conservation Association and Wildlife Logan have come together to promote responsible outcomes for Bahrs Scrub which preserve the area's unique, extremely high conservation values and acknowledge multiple development constraints.

We need your support to Save Bahrs Scrub!

If you are interested and unable to attend this meeting please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.