Scuba Diving club,
Southern California
Alien palms are destroying Australian
rainforest.
But the tourist industry loves them
By Kathy Marks in Sydney
Coconut trees spell paradise, and every
holidaymaker's heart is gladdened by the sight of a beautiful white beach lined
with swaying palms.
That includes the
tourists who visit the Cape Tribulation region of north Queensland, where the
World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest tumbles as far as the sand. But
coconut palms are not native to Australia and, in the Daintree, the
all-conquering trees are elbowing out the rainforest and destroying swathes of
unique vegetation. Conservationists predict dire consequences unless they are
uprooted, but face angry resistance from a tourism industry determined to
protect the area's tropical image.
Hugh Spencer, a
conservation biologist spearheading the anti-palm charge, has been called a
"coconut killer", among other things. One tourism operator threatened
to send a vigilante group after him. But Dr Spencer, director of the
independent Australian Tropical Research Foundation, is unbowed. "The
palms are a major pest," he said. "They're crowding out the
rainforest and taking over the entire beachfront."
It is the proximity
of the rainforest to the Great Barrier Reef, off the Queensland coast, that
lures millions of tourists to Cape Tribulation. Indeed, the area markets itself
as "Rainforest and Reef". But, ironically, it is the narrow band of
vegetation that fringes the beaches that is most at risk from the marauding
palms. At one popular beach, Myall Beach, 10 per cent of the coastal rainforest
has been destroyed. At remote Cowie Beach, one third has disappeared.
Dr Spencer said the
population of adult coconuts in the Daintree had increased fivefold over the
past 16 years, "not including the juveniles, which have gone
berserk".
So critical is the
situation that locals recently formed a coconut discussion group to debate
possible solutions. Mindful of the sensitivities involved, they thrashed out a
compromise: all adult palms to be left in peace, all juveniles less than three
metres tall, with no trunk and a nut still attached to the roots, to be
removed. By hand.
Dr Spencer, who
deplores the "coconutisation" of the world's beaches, favours more
radical action. "They need to be totally culled," he said.
"Coconuts don't belong here. They are far more vigorous than the native
forest and they're very fecund. Wherever they drop a coconut, a tree sprouts
and eventually you get a total thicket ... If nothing is done, we won't have
any native forest on our beaches."
His views have met
fierce opposition from the numerous Europeans who have made north Queensland
their home. "They come here because it's paradise and they think every
coconut is sacred," Dr Spencer said.
Among locals
opposed to a cull is Kelly Sloane, who works for Mason's Tours in Cape
Tribulation. "Most people wouldn't recognise a beach if it didn't have
coconuts on it," she said. "If you ask someone to picture an exotic
beach, it always has swaying palms."
The local council,
Douglas Shire, is considering the proposal to kill juveniles as part of its
shire-wide coconut plan. But, despite the influence of a Green mayor, Mike
Berwick, few people believe it will grasp the nettle and order the wholesale
destruction of palms. Recent council elections made plain how prickly the issue
is, with one mayoral candidate pictured in an advert that showed a backdrop of
felled coconut trees.
Dr Spencer does not
believe the tourism industry would be as badly affected as many fear. "A
lot of people come here to see something different," he said. "The
Daintree contains the last existing area of lowland tropical rainforest, which
is why this is a hotspot zone for world biodiversity. The problem is that everywhere
is trying to look like Tahiti nowadays."
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Posted April 4, 2004