As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday 3 January 2019

Adani 'conservation area' for endangered finch sits on proposed Clive Palmer mine

Exclusive: environmental group calls plan to protect black-throated finch an ‘elaborate hoax’



Sat 29 Dec 2018 19.00 GMTLast modified on Sun 30 Dec 2018 11.43 GMT

Adani has set aside a “conservation area” for the endangered black-throated finch at the same site earmarked for the massive Clive Palmer-backed Alpha North coalmine.

The environmental group Lock the Gate said the land-use conflict meant the Adani plan to protect the black-throated finch – which is one of two crucial management plans for the Carmichael mine yet to be approved by the Queensland government – amounted to an “elaborate hoax”.

But Adani’s response suggested the Indian company could seek to block elements of the neighbouring Alpha North coalmine, or prompt a court battle, to safeguard its own project.

“We will not allow the conservation area for the black-throated finch to be compromised,” Adani said in a statement to Guardian Australia.

Adani owns the relevant pastoral land – effectively the property at surface level. Palmer’s Waratah Coal has several exploration permits for the coal resource underneath, and has applied for a mining lease.

The Waratah Coal plan for Alpha North includes a series of open-cut and underground mines, planned to produce 80m tonnes of coal a year from two separate areas. A 20,000ha section Adani plans to use for a conservation area roughly corresponds to Alpha North plans for four longwall underground mines.



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