Conservationist lies exposed ... again!

Posted on 9 January 2012 by Content Manager

Five of the state’s most prominent conservation groups have invented extraordinary lies that make good and sustainable land use sound like environmental destruction on a massive scale.

They claim “a vast area of native bushland in NSW,” totalling 69,200 hectares – or “138,400 football fields” in their emotive media release – was cleared for crops, forestry or infrastructure when the truth is that only 3610ha was new clearing of native vegetation.

And they said nothing about more than a million hectares of land that has been added as new conservation areas, or restored or revegetated by farmers in the past year alone.

“The Wilderness Society, Nature Conservation Council, National Parks Association, Northern Inland Council for the Environment and North Coast Environment Council banded together to make outrageous claims that do nothing for genuine conservation,” Shooters and Fishers Party MLC Robert Borsak said.

“They are not conservationists, they are protectionist liars.”

The groups appear to be doing little more than drumming up misguided support at a time when native vegetation laws are being reviewed by the State Government, paving the way for extremely poor outcomes.

This article in The Land shows the full extent of the distortion of facts in the green groups’ joint statement.

The story reveals that the conservation groups applied figures for woody vegetation, which includes introduced species, to native vegetation.

“It’s just another long conga line of protectionists’ lies and propaganda, especially when you consider that the clearing primarily relates to woody and feral weeds and that over 1.8 million hectares of new national parks have been created in the last 16 years,” Mr Borsak said.

“The Native Vegetation laws need to severally curtail government controls on private farming land and should instead be encouraging the development of more land for farming, hunting and access to inland water ways.

“Unless the laws are changed, in the long run farming will become unviable in NSW. But then this is what the Wilderness Society, Nature Conservation Council, National Parks Association and their ilk want.

“Government should get out of the pockets of private farmers in NSW and get off the land they own and manage,” Mr Borsak said.