Australian farmers say bat threatens fruit industry

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Australian farmers say bat threatens fruit industry

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AUSTRALIA: May 9, 2001

 

SYDNEY - A decision by an Australian state government to list a bat as a

threatened species puts at risk the state's A$150 million (US$77 million) a

year stone fruit industry, the country's top farming body said yesterday.

 

The New South Wales (NSW) state government plans to list the grey headed

flying fox, a type of bat, as vulnerable under threatened species laws.

Charlie Sherwin, biodiversity campaigner for the Australian Conservation

Foundation, said the species of flying fox had lost 30 percent of its

population in the past decade.

 

But the NSW Farmers body said a proliferation of bats was damaging crops and

the move to list the flying fox as threatened species would make it almost

impossible to protect orchards.

 

" This issue is of great concern to growers whose livelihoods are threatened

by a proliferation of bats..., " the organisation said in a statement issued

yesterday.

 

NSW Farmers said protection of the bats could cost orchardists up to A$10

million per year. A limited survey of growers found 85 percent suffered crop

damage from flying foxes.

 

Farmers said alternatives to culling were not always available, with netting

costing A$24,000-A$54,000 per hectare, a significant cost and not suitable

for all terrain.

 

Stone fruits include peaches or apricots with a large hard seed (stone) in

the centre.

 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

 

 

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