Officials spark outrage with plan to bulldoze incredibly vast area: 'We're absolutely gobsmacked'

The Australian government has come under fire after approving a new plan that would see almost 7,500 acres of land bulldozed and developed without following the country's environmental laws, the Guardian reported. 

What's happening?

Australian Environment Minister Murray Watt approved the bulldozing of nearly 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) of tropical savannah in the Northern Territory without a proper assessment under the country's nature laws. 

Top End Pastoral Company plans to develop the land into farmland to grow sorghum, cotton, and other crops, but the region is home to 13 different threatened species, including the ghost bat, the largest predatory bat in the country. 

The lack of a full environmental assessment of the plan drew immediate backlash from environmental groups, who were baffled by the move. 

"We're absolutely gobsmacked by this decision, which makes a mockery of Labor's promise to fix our broken nature laws," the Environment Centre of the NT executive director, Kirsty Howey, said. "If plans of this scale — to bulldoze thousands of hectares of Australia's great savanna and the homes for 13 threatened species — don't trigger federal assessment, what does?" 

Why is this decision important?

The move comes as a surprise to many environmental groups because the Australian tropical savannah is a unique ecosystem that requires protection, and stripping it down for farmland could have significant environmental consequences. 

Any time you take a diverse ecosystem and turn it into a monoculture field for farming, that decision will have a profound impact on the environment and creatures around it. The loss of the savannah doesn't just affect the land that is being developed into farmland; it also impacts the environment around it and the creatures who live near it, as it can impact food supplies for a variety of species. 

Professor Euan Ritchie, an expert on tropical savannas from Deakin University, said Australians had "inherited one of the largest intact and biodiverse savanna ecosystems left on Earth," per the Guardian.

"Once Australia's tropical savannas are cleared by bulldozers and chains, at industrial scale, they will not return in our lifetime," Ritchie said. 

What's being done about this?

The Australian government's position is that, despite the scale of the plans, an additional environmental review wasn't required. 

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"Not all referrals under the EPBC Act are expected to result in significant impacts on nationally protected matters or require further assessment and approval before proceeding," a department spokesperson said, per the Guardian. "By refining the project design, the proponent has avoided clearing key areas of habitat and reduced potential impacts."

The process could still be challenged in court, and the ECNT is currently weighing potential legal recourse. 

"We're considering all legal avenues around how national nature laws are being applied in the Northern Territory," Howey said. 

Similar poorly-considered development projects have been proposed in other regions, including Iceland and Bermuda.

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