At 11:36 21/07/98 +1000, you wrote:
>Paul Osborn raises a good point. However it is not just an issue relevant
>to leasehold land.
>
> I met a landholder once who owned a reasonable amount of uncleared bush
>near a city and had held it for many years, incurring not insignificant
>holding costs. Gradually all other areas around the land were cleared and
>subdivided, and then the new residents applied pressure to get the land
>rezoned. It eventually was rezoned after a long battle, preventing the
>landholder from clearing and subdividing because it was the only
>undeveloped land left in the area. The landowner's attitude at the end of
>this was "I have tried to keep this area as some undeveloped urban bushland
>whilst I have been holding it, but I have just been penalised for doing so.
>I should have bulldozed the lot as soon as I got it."
>
>That strikes me as a not unreasonable conclusion to reach in the
>circumstances, given that he effectively had to bear the entire financial
>burden resulting from other people's decisions to clear other land. Too
>often people advocating change to land management regimes forget that what
>they suggest is for a small sector of society to bear the cost when
>everyone shares the benefit.
>
>I guess I could paraphrase this by saying "we're never going to solve this
>issue on birding-aus"!
>
>Murray Lord
>Sydney
>
>
Murray
I think that you make a good point here, and I've heard similar
statements from landowners. The only way that we'll
solve it is by providing a financial REWARD and not a penalty for keeping
land uncleared.
Of course, this has to be paid by someone and do we (the collective we=
taxpayers) have the resolve to pay for retaining bush?
Certainly some of us do, and perhaps we should be making more noise
about it and stating our position more forcefully.... and not only
stating it but putting some money down.
Compared to the UK etc, the number of privately funded reserves (RSPB, BA)
compared with govt. reserves is very small. Does this mean that we talk
a lot but are not prepared to actually spend money??
Perhaps we need to ensure that the available govt money is spent more
wisely - who decides this??
in any event its an important, thought provoking thread.
peter
Dr Peter Woodall email =
Division of Vet Pathology & Anatomy
School of Veterinary Science & An. Prod. Phone = +61 7 3365 2300
The University of Queensland Fax = +61 7 3365 1355
Brisbane, Qld, Australia 4072 WWW = http://www.uq.edu.au/~anpwooda
"hamba phezulu" (= "go higher" in isiZulu)
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