Save the Cassowary

Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
The Hon Tony Burke MP

20 May 2013

Dear Minister Burke,

Habitat destruction and fragmentation is the number one threat to the endangered Southern Cassowary. It is estimated there may be as few as 1,000 Cassowaries remaining in Australia and yet development continues to destroy and degrade vital habitat.

In July 2008, Minister Garrett halted an inappropriate development in Mission Beach, now known as Garrett's Corridor, on the basis that the risk was too high and the impact on the cassowary would be too severe. Despite this block being a 60 acre vital cassowary corridor connecting the World Heritage Area to the coastal low lands, it is under threat of development again.

There are 185 rainforest properties in the heart of the Daintree zoned for development, and Mission Beach subdivisions have created more than 1,000 residential blocks. Developers are continuing to create further subdivisions that will destroy more rainforest habitat and cut off essential wildlife corridors.

The devastating effects of cyclone Yasi emphasises the urgent need to reconnect, rehabilitate and protect the coastal lowland rainforests to help re-build climate change resilient rainforest habitat in the Wet Tropics. Protecting cassowary habitat benefits the entire biodiversity of the region, as cassowaries play a vital role in seed dispersal.

Please commit the much needed $60 million towards protecting cassowary habitat in the Daintree and Mission Beach.