Frydenberg stalls on woodlands protection after pressure from states and farmers

Farmers’ associations, the Tasmanian deputy premier and a Tasmanian Liberal senator lobbied the environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, not to grant critically endangered status to woodlands eligible for protection under Australia’s national environment laws.

Josh Frydenberg has put off deciding whether or not woodlands
 will be approved for national environment protection.

In 2017 the independent threatened species scientific committee, which provides scientific advice to the government about conserving threatened species, recommended two new woodlands be listed as critically endangered ecological communities under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

The first, poplar box grassy woodlands on alluvial plains, a type of grassy eucalypt woodland found in New South Wales and Queensland, was recommended for a critically endangered listing in April 2017.

Read the story from The Guardian by Lisa Cox - “Frydenberg stalls on woodlands protection after pressure from states and farmers.”