Posts Tagged ‘Daintree conservation’
Queensland Ecotourism Plan – Draft for Comment
May 7th, 2013 | 
Author: 
Queensland’s Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing (NPRSR) has published its Draft 2013 Ecotourism Plan for public consultation. Beautifully presented with fantastic images of natural vistas, our public environment officials have presented their draft view of ecotourism, and in doing so seem to have attempted to leverage commercial tourism in National Parks into the more exclusive strata of both ecotourism and Australia’s National Landscapes program.
Posted in 
Tags: 
Has Climate Change Affected the Daintree Rainforest? Part 2.
Over the past two years, our winters have been long and cold, sometimes plunging to less than 10 degrees Celsius. In August, we note changes. Increases in temperature, new leaves appearing on our fruit trees in the orchard and with the arrival of the new leaves, the hatching out of the stick insects, but only on the early leafing trees. How is it, we asked, that the stick insects remain on the first trees, while the later leafing trees are allowed to flourish without stick insects?
A Glut of Diploglottis
The fruit of Bernie’s Tamarind or Diploglottis berniana are abundant on the rainforest floor. We can thank Cyclone Yasi for the masses of colourful fruit, including blue Cassowary Plums, red Black Palm seeds, white Bumpy Satinash apples, Yellow and Noah Walnuts and grey/green Kuranda quandongs and purple/black Davidson Plums, which litter our pathways and forest with a smorgasbord of delicacies. Cyclones are essential for stimulating regeneration.
Queensland’s Proposed Iconic Legislation
Contrary to the intent of the outgoing Douglas Shire Council’s resolution to not allow Council staff to participate in the process of preparing submissions to Queensland’s Draft Iconic legislation, the Queensland Department of Infrastructure and Planning has contracted the Planning Consultant primarily involved in developing the Douglas Shire’s Planning Scheme, to prepare a Draft Iconic Values Statement for Douglas Shire.
Having previously thought that one-month public consultation for Queensland’s Draft Iconic legislation was inadequate, the six days offered this afternoon, for the Draft Iconic Values Statement, is remarkably challenging. We are advised, “Unfortunately any submissions received after 6pm on Monday the 17th March 2008, will be unable to be considered.”