What is an Eco-resort?
Wikipedia defines it as “A holiday resort designed to have minimal impact on the natural environment.”
So would the KUR-World project fit this definition?
On at least three counts it would not:
- It would not be just a holiday resort- it also has a residential subdivision of 380 houses, a campus for 500 students plus a medical centre of 50 – 60 dwellings.
- It is not designed to have minimal impact on the environment and could never achieve this due to its size- it would add around 4000 people to a rural area.
- It is planned in an area with inadequate infrastructure for such a large development. As well as other construction, this would lead to more roads being built, some of which might well be in essential cassowary habitat. This is admitted by the proponent. On page 11 of the Referral of the Proposed Action under the federal EPBC Act it states ‘Where vegetation mapped as essential habitat for the southern cassowary lies within the development footprint, clearing will be mitigated through a habitat offset that will comply with Commonwealth and Queensland government requirements.’
This means the habitat would be removed if needed- despite being in a important wildlife corridor.
In Australia there is an ECO certification process that registers Eco resorts and so sets a standard of best practise.
One important aspect of this is the environmental management criteria which include:
‘Nature tourism and ecotourism activities should not degrade the natural environment.’
A large dam of between 20 and 23 megalitres has been built on the Barnwell Road property. This has muddied one of the few creeks in which the critically endangered Kuranda Tree frog is found. This has occurred before the proposed construction of the so called Eco Resort KUR-World has even been approved.
The criteria continue ‘operations should be developed and managed to conserve and enhance the natural and cultural environments in which they operate in, through the recognition and application of ecologically sustainable practices. ‘
So would KUR-World be an “Eco-resort”? No, this can only ever be applied as a marketing term to disguise what is a planned- an environmentally damaging satellite suburb that should never be located in the Myola valley- and we hope never will.