Environment minister will rule if Tasmanian forest that is home to the critically endangered parrot can be bulldozed

Tasmanian forest considered important for the survival of the critically endangered swift parrot may be bulldozed to build a dam for a fish farm and golf course development.

Glamorgan Spring Bay Council, on Tasmania’s east coast, wants to clear about 40ha of what scientists say is critical swift parrot breeding and foraging habitat to develop a 3,000m-litre-a-year dam near the town of Orford. The environment minister, Melissa Price, will now decide whether the proposal goes ahead.

The dam would provide fresh water to a salmon farm in Okehampton Bay, a planned golf course and housing development and for local towns in the event of drought or climate change-related shortages. Advice to the council from Birdlife Tasmania says all remaining parrot habitat is critical for the species’ survival and must be protected.

A peer-reviewed analysis in 2015 found the parrot was headed for extinction or near extinction within 16 years. It was listed by the federal government’s threatened species commissioner as a protection priority – one of 20 birds that needs to be on an improved trajectory by 2020.

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But under national environmental law the council could “offset” the lost parrot breeding habitat by striking a deal with a nearby landholder to protect a larger area of existing habitat. It is considered an offset despite it involving a loss in the total amount of parrot breeding area.

Matthew Webb, from the Australian National University Fenner School of Environment and Society, has spent years researching the parrot’s plight. He estimated 80% to 90% of swift parrot habitat had been lost since European settlement through logging, conversion to plantations, agriculture and bushfire. The species is hunted across its breeding habitat by sugar gliders, an introduced species in Tasmania. It has led to a chronic shortage of females, which are outnumbered by males three-to-one.

“They are under so much pressure from predation and habitat loss … It is our responsibility to be doing everything we can to help the species,” Webb said. “How people can justify clearing critical breeding habitat is beyond me.”

Part of the area to be cleared for the dam is Eucalyptus ovata woodland and forest, which was itself nominated in 2013 for listing as a threatened ecological community. Scientists estimate only 2% to 3% of Eucalytpus ovata remain, prompting the threatened species scientific committee to recommend in 2016 that it be listed as critically endangered. The government is yet to act on the recommendation.

The new Glamorgan mayor, Debbie Wisby, declined to comment on the merits of the dam proposal, which includes a list of potential offset proposals. The council’s application says there are few other suitable water collection and storage sites in the region.

A spokesman for Price said the dam proposal had been deemed a “controlled action”, meaning it required a detailed assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Epbc) Act. He said a decision on whether the project could go ahead would be made by the minister or a delegate for the minister within the environment department.

Though it is yet to be approved, the dam project received a $2.3m grant from the federal government before the Tasmanian election earlier this year.

Deliberation on the dam proposal comes amid a push from environment groups, lawyers and academics for tougher national environment laws that would limit ministerial discretion over whether developments are allowed. Labor will consider the issue, including whether to back the creation of an independent national Environment Protection Authority, at its national conference this month.

The Wilderness Society’s Tasmanian campaign manager, Vica Bayley, said the case highlighted the inadequacy of existing environment legislation, particularly its reliance on offsets. He said at least one of the proposed offset sites for the dam was already effectively protected after a development proposal was refused due to concern over the parrot.

“Offsets are an academic excuse,” Bayley said. “This is a species that can’t afford to lose a single hectare.”

Philip Barker, the principal ecologist with consultants North Barker who worked on the dam proposal, said if an offset program was governed properly it could be a powerful tool for both conservation and industry planning. He said if for every hectare cleared four hectares must be protected it meant that 80% of remaining habitat would be protected.

Jess Feehely, the principal lawyer with the Environmental Defenders Office Tasmania, said among significant flaws in the Epbc Act was that it offered no additional protection when a species was listed as critically endangered. She said an upcoming review of the act would offer an opportunity to strengthen the protections offered to Australia’s most vulnerable species. “Hopefully no species are lost in the interim,” she said.

The dam is one of several development proposals in Tasmania being challenged on environmental grounds. A private tourism development with helicopter access at Lake Malbena in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area was approved by the Morrison government against the advice of three expert bodies. The Wilderness Society is contesting the decision in the Federal Court.