THE FINAL Is Globally Unique
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Tim Low sounds the Christmas Island is so special it manages takes with it the potential to restore acres alarm on a new threat to have its own species of booby and of rainforest. Replacement soil can’t be frigatebird. That says a lot, since the world brought in because it may harbour insect to Australia’s unique has only five frigatebird species and seven pests and microbes. Parks Australia, which Christmas Island. boobies. Abbott’s Booby is the rarest of all manages the Christmas Island National boobies, the only one in its own genus, Park, is attempting to rehabilitate old mine and the only one to nest high in trees, sites with a one-metre layer of soil that it from which it barks loudly, as if there are has been able to scrounge. There is only seals up in the canopy. Originally breeding enough soil to restore very small areas. in the Pacific and western Indian Ocean, The phosphate ends up fertilising oil palms Christmas Island became their last outpost in Indonesia and Malaysia, implicating it more than a century ago. The island also in rainforest destruction in South East Asia. has its own species of pigeon, owl and The island has, in some years, provided white-eye, and a goshawk likely to be up to half of Malaysia’s phosphate needs. declared a unique species in the near future. In 2011 the mine company, Phosphate There is also a remarkable golden form Resources Limited, expanded into oil of the White-tailed Tropicbird, known palms, buying a plantation and mill in locally as the ‘Golden Bosun’. Land crabs, Malaysia. Two of its largest shareholders including the famous Red Crabs, as well as are Malaysian companies and three of Blue Crabs and enormous Robber Crabs, its directors have backgrounds in the emphasise the point that Christmas Island Malaysian oil palm industry. THE FINAL is globally unique. Phosphate is the reason the island was Yet for all its natural wonders, Christmas developed in the 1890s, relying on a Island has seen more extinctions in recent Chinese and Malay labour force that was times than any other part of Australia, harshly exploited in the early decades. losing a bat, a shrew and two lizards. The The mine became uneconomical and island has been undergoing death by a closed in 1987, then re-opened as a new thousand cuts. It is an invasion hotspot, entity in 1991, focused on reworking old with giant centipedes, Asian Wolf Snakes mine stockpiles. It was agreed then that and supercolonies of crazy ants. And mining had a limited lifetime, and no more Christmas Island’s plight is set to worsen, rainforest would be cleared. with a company hoping to mine phosphate under tall rainforest supporting endangered The original mining company was Abbott’s Booby nests. The island’s probably the first in the world to fund administrator has endorsed the mining an environmental study, when one of its proposal as vital for the island economy. founders, the visionary scientist Charles Extinct animals can’t be brought back, and Murray, brought out a British biologist to the island’s invasive species aren’t likely study the island as mining began and then to be eradicated anytime soon, but this a decade later, in 1908. Charles Andrews proposal can and must be stopped. found that the island’s two native rodents, plentiful on his first visit, were extinct by Phosphate mining has a long history here, his second, from a parasite imported with with a quarter of the island already cleared ship rats. He saw giant centipedes and for mining. The island presents disturbing weeds coming on ships serving the mine. vistas of tropical rainforest alternating with So began the unravelling of the island former minefields, now desolate areas of ecosystem. The centipedes, plus the Asian rubble and weeds. From top: wolf snakes that arrived in the 1980s, are Phosphate mining has devastated the Mining is always bad for rainforest but on implicated in the lizard extinctions. rainforests of Christmas Island—and Christmas Island it is diabolical because because miners take the topsoil and do not The harm caused by the mine became a what is taken by phosphate mining is the replace it, only ferns and weeds grow back. global concern in the 1960s when British Photo by Tim Low soil, leaving bare limestone fit only for biologist Bryan Nelson came to study weeds and ferns. On the mainland, topsoil Abbott’s Boobies need high rainforest trees Abbott’s Boobies. They nest atop very tall that is moved aside early on in the mining so that their fledglings can successfully trees because their chick, on its maiden engage their wings when they first take to process can be returned for revegetation. flight, needs a long drop-off to engage its the air. Photo courtesy Parks Australia On Christmas Island, every shipload of soil 42 AUSTRALIAN birdlife DECEMBER 2016 43 THE FINAL CUT wings. The tallest trees grow in soil rich in prospecting application states that they The company says on its website that phosphate. Nelson was told that substantial will not actually drill closer to nesting “we continue to constantly seek new numbers of booby nesting areas were slated Abbott’s Bobbies than 30 metres, there is ways of expanding and improving on our for clearing. Many boobies died, until the every likelihood that the bulldozers could operations.” If it receives 145 hectares destruction was stopped. clear along the drill lines much closer of rainforest it will expect more in future, to the nests than this. BirdLife Australia whenever the employment card is played. Awareness of the island’s many unique argued that a 30 metre buffer is manifestly The island’s woes will never end. Islands are species grew, and in the 1980s, 63 per inadequate and called on the Australian extinction hotspots because their animals cent of the island was reserved as national Government to declare the prospecting a have small and vulnerable populations. park. But large areas of rainforest remain as controlled action. Fortunately, the Federal More rainforest destruction will further crown land, and the company wants some Environment Department has now done compromise Christmas Island’s unique of these. It obtained a new exploration so and the company has to explain how its animals and plants. It has lost four of licence in December 2015. An article in prospecting will affect threatened species. its five mammal species and most of its The Australian reported that only seven reptiles. It should not be condemned to hectares of rainforest will be cleared, but In 2007 the then environment minister, lose Abbott’s Boobies and other bird this is altogether misleading, representing Malcolm Turnbull, rejected a bid by the species as well. the forest to be removed for prospecting. mine to clear rainforest, and when the Anyone who studies the mine’s proposal company appealed, the next environment Tim Low is an ecologist and author of with GIS software can see that mining minister, Peter Garrett, quashed their Feral Future and Where Song Began. will destroy about 145 hectares of publicly hopes. The current application shows To have the mining proposal qualify owned rainforest. Birds that will lose that the rainforest remains at risk—any as a ‘controlled action’ requiring habitat forever include the endangered ensuing mining will have a much wider an environmental assessment of Christmas Island Goshawk and vulnerable environmental footprint. The rhetoric has its impact is a small win. However, Christmas Island Hawk-Owl. The impact also changed. The earlier exploration bid should the mining be approved, on Abbott’s Boobies will be greater than the was portrayed by the company as something we will need to fight for the Abbott’s 145 hectares lost, because the forest close that would assist “a planned and rational Booby, Christmas Island Goshawk to cleared areas will become unsuitable for transition to the Island’s post mining and other endemic island birds. nesting due to disturbance from the mining economy.” Ecotourism has long been By supporting our work, or by exploration process. viewed as the island’s only viable future, one becoming part of BirdLife Australia’s handicapped by the continued presence of In September the mining company asserted Conservation Action Network the mine—any visiting birdwatcher soon that its prospecting does not qualify you can help us in our battle for notices all the mine infrastructure and as a controlled action (one requiring the birds—sign up today at bit.ly/ trucks roaring along roads. environmental assessment under the BirdLifeVolunteer Commonwealth EPBC Act). This implied In the decade since then almost nothing there will be no significant impact on has been done to prepare the island for that threatened species. The company said post-mining future, and further mining is The Christmas Island Goshawk is one of the it will not drill within 30 metres of no longer depicted as transitional. forest birds under threat from the proposed known Abbott’s Booby nests. While the mines. Photo by Rohan Clarke DECEMBER 2016 45.