Property developers in Perth plan to bulldoze an endangered banksia ecosystem used by threatened black cockatoo species, and conservationists have warned the damage cannot be mitigated by proposed offsets.
The developers want to replant the banksia ecosystem within a different type of protected woodland – a proposal that a leading botanist said was doomed to fail.
The woodland to be bulldozed for three housing developments is home to species including the threatened Baudin’s and Carnaby’s black cockatoos.
Prof Kingsley Dixon, a restoration expert and the national expert on the ecosystem – known as the banksia woodlands of the Swan coastal plain – said he had “deep concerns” about the proposal to offset clearing by trying to create banksia woodlands from scratch within another woodland type in protected reserves around Perth.
Dixon said the proposals put forward for the three developments by the environmental consultancy Emerge Associates were effectively “forcing one system into another”, and it was unlikely a banksia ecosystem could be created that would match the diversity of the cleared sites.
“As an example, would it be appropriate for the rare grasslands of New South Wales to be knocked over and [to compensate] you stick them into the Blue Mountains?” he said. “Or we take the loss of Kosciuszko alpine species and we put something on the flats near Sydney?”
Dixon said he had been working with restoration teams across Perth on banksia woodland for 40 years and “we still can’t make one hectare” of the ecosystem from scratch. He said they had tried to restore existing patches of banksia woodland and been unable to bring it back to its original state.
“This is not simple gardening,” he said.
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Biodiversity offsetting is meant to compensate for the environmental damage caused by development by providing an equal or greater environmental benefit elsewhere. But offsetting has been beset with problems, including that promised offsets are sometimes never delivered or they fail to adequately compensate for the environmental loss.
Like other capital cities around the country, Perth is facing a housing crunch, with the median housing price in the WA capital surpassing the $1m mark.
Some new developments areplacing increased pressure on already threatened ecosystems such as the banksia woodland.
Species in the woodland include herbaceous plants, flowering woody shrubs and native sedges. A canopy storey contains banksias and eucalypts.
In addition to threatened Baudin’s and Carnaby’s black cockatoos, the habitat also supports insect communities and animals such as the honey possum.
Dixon said it was the collective mix of species that created the “broader ecological balance” for a resilient banksia woodland ecological community “with a unique assemblage of species that are not represented elsewhere”.
Of the three housing developments – two in the south of Perth and one in the north – one was approved by the federal environment department last yearand the other two are under assessment.
Most of the offset options put forward by Emerge Associates would involve trying to create banksia woodland from scratch within stands of tuart woodland in public reserves. Tuart, if it meets the right conditions, is a critically endangered ecosystem in its own right.
Dixon said the tuart woodlands had the wrong soil and canopy type to support a true banksia woodland. He said the two ecosystems had some common species and it was possible for a simple type of banksia woodland to exist within a tuart woodland, but not the same type of complex banksia ecosystem that was being cleared.
He said that meant the offsets proposed were unlikely to result in a like-for-like environmental benefit and there would be a net loss of banksia woodland as it was pushed closer to the critically endangered category.
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s national biodiversity policy officer, Brendan Sydes, said the proposals highlighted concerns that offsetting, rather than being a last resort, had become a tool to facilitate development at the expense of vulnerable species and ecosystems.
“These examples demonstrate that there’s an overreliance on offsets and an optimistic assumption about the ability to recreate ecosystems when in many cases the answer should be ‘no, don’t destroy the habitat’,” Sydes said.
“We’ve just got to the point where there’s so little left that the priority should be protection.”
Following the passage of amendments to Australia’s national environmental laws last year, detailed rules for offsets are under development.
“It’s critical that it delivers a clampdown on when offsets can be used, and that new rules and offsets funds don’t actually end up acting as habitat destruction accelerators by facilitating inappropriate use of biodiversity offsets,” Sydes said.
A spokesperson for the federal environment department said in the case of the housing development it had approved, it had worked closely with the environmental consultancy to “ensure the offset is achievable and aligns with a banksia [threatened ecological] community that is known to coexist with tuart woodlands”.
They said that project was approved with “rigorous” conditions to deliver and monitor the offset.
They could not comment on the two developments still under assessment. They said federal offset policy did not prevent offsets on land that was publicly owned.
A spokesperson for Emerge Associates said there had been a public consultation process for each development, including their proposed offsets, and public feedback was reflected in the assessment documentation.
They noted some of the developments were still being considered by the department.
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