Coalmines could wipe out threatened black-throated finch habitat – study

Proposed mines in Queensland, including Adani’s huge Carmichael project, will destroy so much habitat the damage cannot be ‘offset’, researchers say

Michael Slezak

Thursday 3 March 2016 07.58 GMT

Last modified on Thursday 3 March 201608.00 GMT

Proposed coalmines in Queensland, including the huge Adani Carmichael project, would destroy the majority of the remaining habitat of the threatened black-throated finch, according to research.

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Compensating for the loss of habitat – which Adani has been given federal government approval to do with “biodiversity offsetting” – was not possible since the best remaining habitat would be impacted by the Carmichael mine, the study by researchers at James Cook University in Townsville found.

In addition, about 60% of the remaining habitat for the finch was already covered by mining or exploration licenses.

The bird, which was recently declared extinct in New South Wales and has lost 80% of its habitat globally, is already the centre of a federal case in which the Australian Conservation Foundation has challenged environment minister Greg Hunt’s approval of the mine. It argues that he failed to adequately consider advice about the mine’s impact on the finch.

Approving the Carmichael mine, Hunt said it “would not have any unacceptable impacts on listed threatened species,” because they would either be avoided, mitigated or compensated for (offset).

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