THE Coalition has promised a $400,000 grant to a conservation group in the electorate of the opposition environment spokesman, Greg Hunt.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
Released by Mr Hunt in Melbourne yesterday, the Coalition's environment platform includes the $400,000 grant to The Thin Green Line Foundation over the next three years. This makes up the entire financial commitment to the ''international conservation of endangered species'' budget line in the policy paper.
The foundation supports park ranger programs in developing countries and helps rangers and families who have been attacked or killed by poachers while protecting endangered animals.
Its website gives its address as Balnarring on the Mornington Peninsula, which is in Mr Hunt's electorate of Flinders.
The $400,000 grant is among a handful of direct contributions to non-government organisations. There would be $500,000 grants to Keep Australia Beautiful and Clean Up Australia and $250,000 for Toad Busters to eradicate cane toads in northern Australia.
The Coalition's forestry policy, also launched yesterday, would allocate $20 million to timber contractors in Tasmania and a plan to increase burning wood to generate electricity.
The Liberal senator Richard Colbeck said that wood biomass could generate up to 7 per cent of Australia's renewable energy target, despite concerns that it could release more greenhouse emissions than coal when the life cycle of logged trees is taken into account. Labor matched the pledge to support Tasmania's forestry contractors.
