Don’t blast the emu-wrens to extinction!

https://birdlife.org.au/campaign/save-whalers-way

https://birdlife.org.au/campaign/savewhalersway/#:~:text=Have%20your%20say,decision%20makers%20today!Have your say on Whalers Way

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proposed rocket launch facility on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula will destroy the habitat of threatened birds, in particular Mallee Whipbirds and Eyre Peninsula Southern Emu-

The Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex has the potential to drive nationally and state threatened birds toward extinction. Habitat at the proposed site is critical to the survival of the endangered Eyre Peninsula Southern Emu-wren and the Mallee Whipbird.

There are estimated to be as few as 750 Eyre Peninsula Southern Emu-wrens remaining. National conservation advice (2023) explicitly states that to maintain and recover their population “habitat critical to the survival of the subspecies must not be destroyed or degraded”. 80% of the remaining Mallee Whipbird population inhabits the southern Eyre Peninsula. The region is critical to their survival.

The project area is currently protected by a Heritage Agreement, which can only be altered with the agreement of the Native Vegetation Council before permits to destroy intact remnant vegetation can be granted. Such an approval would undermine both the Agreement itself and the Native Vegetation Council's authority. Both Federal and State leaders have one last chance to intervene before this project goes ahead.

The overwhelming majority of respondents in the public comment period opposed this proposal (over 95 per cent, per Southern Launch’s consultation response). These concerns mirror those from expert ecologists.

We urge you to act in this final stage, alongside the Australian community and conservation experts, to ensure the disastrous current proposal for Whalers Way does not go ahead. To permit the current action is to actively choose extinction for native wildlife.https://birdlife.org.au/campaign/save-whalers-way/