ORNITHOLOGISTS are up in arms over Australia鈥檚 plans to build a giant camp for would-be immigrants on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. They say the camp, due to be completed later this year, will threaten the last breeding colony of the Abbott鈥檚 booby, one of the world鈥檚 most endangered birds.
Contracts for construction of the 鈥淚mmigration Reception and Processing Centre鈥�, which will house up to 1200 asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, were signed by the Australian government last week. Australia has come under strong international pressure to implement a more humane policy for would-be immigrants. But immigration minister Philip Ruddock says that the centre will help keep unwanted immigrants out of the country. Citing the 鈥渘ational interest鈥�, Australia鈥檚 minister for the environment, David Kemp, exempted the project from a formal environmental impact assessment, which would normally be required under Australian federal law.
But critics say the centre could help push the booby to the brink of extinction. Once widely found across the Indian Ocean, the large white-bodied seabird bird today breeds only on Christmas Island. Around 5000 birds nest in patches of rainforest that have survived widespread phosphate mining over the past 30 years.
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The remaining nesting sites are protected by a national park that covers much of the island. But its numbers are still dropping because the forest fragments are too small. A rehabilitation plan for the bird drawn up by the government four years ago suggests growing new rainforest on former mining areas.
Ornithologists say that the proposed site for the immigration centre flies in the face of this policy. It鈥檚 on the island鈥檚 North-West Point, which had already been earmarked for a forest rehabilitation project and is close to a large number of booby nests. 鈥淭he site will be on or near rehabilitation work 300 metres upwind of good nesting areas,鈥� says Mike Weston, conservation manager of Birds Australia.
The Abbott鈥檚 booby, which fishes in the waters off the island, lives for around 40 years. But it is a slow breeder and spends many years at sea. Ornithologists say that on average, it takes a pair of Abbott鈥檚 boobies 30 years to produce two offspring to replace them. The bird鈥檚 distinctive breeding biology and behaviour led to it recently being ascribed its own genus, separate from other boobies.
Christmas Island is a speck of land only three times the area of Manhattan, some 400 kilometres south of the Indonesian island of Java. Its forests, home to a number of endemic species, are currently threatened by continued mining, plans for a spaceport on the south of the island, and a plague of yellow crazy ants, as well as the immigration centre.
But Kemp claims that the centre could benefit the environment. 鈥淭he centre will be built on land currently being mined. The cessation of mining has the potential to enhance the protection of the surrounding national park,鈥� he said. None of the ornithologists contacted by New 杏吧原创 agreed with that assessment.