Conservation news

* WA oil spill images: recent photos taken
* Bulldozer capital reform
* Traveston Dam: first stage approved
* New Snubfin dolphin footage
* Humboldt - the new national park
* WWF position on forest and climate change mitigation
* WWF Climate Savers

*   WA oil spill images
If you’d like to have a look at recent photos taken by Kara Burns during WWF’s oil spill expedition off WA they are now on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwfaustralia/sets/72157622408156075/.

* Bulldozer capital reform
The new landclearing reforms protecting 800,000 hectares of regrowth bush was announced by Premier Bligh in Queensland. The Vegetation Management Plan was set out in legislation and introduced to Parliament on Tuesday 6 October. As a reality check this means that current clearing rates will only be reduced by 5%. To put this into perspective, the protected areas add up to less than 3% of Queensland’s 27 million hectares of pastoral regrowth vegetation. While a long awaited ‘win’ for WWF and the other conservation groups involved, it is still nowhere near enough and will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or stop the continued destruction of Queensland’s endangered ecosystems and vulnerable landscapes.

* Traveston Dam
The Queensland Coordinator General has approved the first stage of Traveston Crossing Dam. The 7.30 Report did a story on Traveston/Paradise on Tuesday night, check out: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/A key point in the story was that the fishway in the Paradise Dam, designed to protect the endangered Lungfish, isn’t working. A similar fishway is also proposed for Traveston. The final decision rests with Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

* New Snubfin dolphin footage
If you missed the recent Channel 10 News coverage of the Snubfin dolphin population in Townsville and its plight against the onslaught of coastal development you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JCtxYNWXhI.

* Humboldt - the new national park
A new 7,660 hectare national park south-east of Emerald had been officially named as the government looks to increase conservation in Queensland. Humboldt National Park contains 18 regional ecosystems, six of which are classified endangered and three are classified of concern. The national park takes in the Brigalow belt forest and was originally proposed by WWF-Australia to become a new national park in 2003.

* WWF position on forest and climate change mitigation
Click on this link to panda.org where you’ll find the pdf

* WWF CLIMATE SAVERS - AUSTRALIA
The WWF Climate Savers program is the WWF Network’s global platform mobilising the business and industry community to lead by example and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In co-operation with WWF, Climate Savers has shown that corporations can deliver emission reductions over and above the commitments required by the Kyoto Protocol. WWF Climate Savers companies will have reduced their collective emissions by over 14 million tons by 2010. Current Climate Savers include - HP, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, JohnsonDiversey, Lafarge, Nike, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Novo Nordisk, Sony, Tetra Pak, The Coca Cola Company, and National Geographic.