Using the law to protect nature

https://envirojustice.org.au/

We use a powerful combination of the law and legal advocacy campaigns to protect and restore key at-risk ecosystems:

• Southern Ocean: Seismic blasting for petroleum and gas exploration in the Otway Basin has devastating impacts on marine life, particularly whales, and on the Sea Country of the Gunditjmara people. We are using all legal tools available to ensure the current eight proposals for exploration are carefully scrutinised.
• Montane forests: Forests in Victoria require stronger legal protection now that native forest logging has ended. We are advocating for new national parks and nomination of key Victorian forests for World Heritage listing and monitoring logging activities taking place under the guise of ‘forest management’. In Tasmania, we have committed our legal and campaigning skills to support local groups protecting forests and the threatened species that call them home
• The Murray-Darling Basin is one of the most vulnerable water basins on earth and is at risk of ecological collapse, primarily as a result of human intervention interrupting natural flows.
• The world’s last untouched tropical savannas of the Northern Territory are a new frontier for environmental destruction from big cotton and other harmful industries. Sustained scrutiny of land clearing applications along with engagement with the regulator and state and federal decision makers will continue.
• Our Federal environmental laws are not up to scratch, and provisions that can be used are not utilised or complied with. We will use the courts to test these laws and increase protection for iconic endangered species across Australia.