Adani’s proposed Carmichael Coal Mine in central Queensland could destroy the last major habitat of the endangered black-throated finch, a new report has warned.
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The southern black-throated finch is a small bird with a big presence, featuring heavily in recent news coverage around Adani’s proposed mine in the state’s Galilee Basin.
An independent review has been ordered by the Queensland government into Adani’s management plan for the finches’ habitat, after the federal government waved through the environmental approval for the site.
A report in the journal Environmental Science and Policy, published on Wednesday, called 'How to Send a Finch Extinct', found there were two main areas where the finches still have a viable habitat - in the Galilee Basin and near Townsville.
Of the two, the Galilee Basin had a much greater population of the birds, meaning any development in that area would disproportionately affect the species.
The Indian mining company has earmarked 33,000 hectares around its proposed mine site for alternative finch habitat.
The report’s lead author, April Reside from UQ’s Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, said that would not be enough to preserve the bird population in the area.
“Every extra hectare they lose puts a really big strain on their future survival,” Dr Reside said.
“I’m really worried if they lose their best habitat, only fragments are left, then they’re going to end up with no good habitat left.”
Dr Reside said she was also concerned that Adani’s proposal for the habitat land seemed to be mostly focused on cattle in the area, especially around restocking rates and feed grass.
“We want to be thinking more about the finches, and less about cows,” she said.
“We need to be serious about protecting that habitat and then the habitat we do protect we need to make sure it isn’t degraded.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t have things like mines, or housing developments or solar farms, we just don’t put them where the black-throated finch habitat is.”
Dr Reside said ideally there would be an automatic ban on development in black-throated finch habitat, given they need a large area for a bird their size, and the fact that their known habitats are already small.
Adani said it had complied with every environmental regulation it was required to.
“The size of the conservation area is a regulated requirement which was specified by the Australian government through the Environmental Impact Statement approval process,” an Adani spokesperson said in a statement.
“The black-throated finches that live on Moray Downs will not be guaranteed protection without the Carmichael mine and its conservation area.
"We provided this advice in the Land Court in 2015 where the court subsequently found in our favour.
“This is an example of how mining projects create security of habitat that otherwise would not exist.”
The size of the finch habitat has already been reduced by by around two thousand hectares because some of the land set aside was swallowed up by the proposed China Stone coal mine site.
Some of the remaining land forms part of the proposed site of Clive Palmer’s Alpha North coal mine, although Adani has previous insisted it will vigorously defend the remaining habitat area.
Adani has started preliminary roadworks at the Carmichael site, despite the environmental approval still being pending.
The black-throated finch eats grass seeds but lives in trees, meaning it needs a large area of lightly wooded land as its habitat, a specific land category which is slowly disappearing in Queensland.
with Joe Hinchliffe
