announcement out, page-20

Heres Anna Bligh's proposal.

Anna Bligh releases election pledge to create massive new national parks linking areas from Birdsville to Brisbane

A 2200-kilometre green belt would be created from Birdsville to Brisbane under a re-elected Labor government.

The corridor would connect deserts and the Channel Country in Queensland's far west with the Carnarvon country and western hardwoods in central and southern Queensland, finally reaching the beach on the Gold Coast.

The belt would take a decade to create.

Labor would spend around $15 million on voluntary acquisitions and agreements to protect priority areas through nature refuges, local government protections and stock route management.

Around 400,000 hectares of new national park would be created in the western hardwoods region in the next term of government.

The nature refuge would also be reviewed within 12 months to consider banning mining exploration and gas activity there.

Premier Anna Bligh said Labor would want to keep the corridor forever.

"This will be conservation on a continental scale," she told reporters from a state stockroute, southwest of Longreach.

Lobby group AgForce said the premier's announcement was all about politics, not the environment.

"It's just another grubby green deal that's being done for preferences and votes in southeast Queensland," spokesman Drew Wagner told the ABC.

He said there has been no consultation on the plan, and no consideration given to the impacts for rural and regional communities.

But property owner Angus Emmott strongly backs the plan.

"The Cooper, the Georgina and the Diamantina (rivers) are some of the most important and major dry land desert river systems left on the planet that aren't seriously compromised," he said.

"So to actually look after these systems that underpin such incredible ecology ... to have the foresight to protect these systems is just so important," he said.

The state government would also work to secure a share of the $964 million Commonwealth Biodiversity Fund.

The Wilderness Society backed the plan, describing it as "visionary".

"If we are to save the wonderful wildlife and sustain the landscapes of Queensland we have to think big," society spokesman Tim Seelig said in a statement.

"Nature needs to be connected across large areas for species to survive."

Dr Seelig said the plan would complement the state's Wild Rivers laws, which limit development in water catchment regions.

"We encourage the premier to replicate the indigenous conservation successes of Cape York and recently, Stradbroke Island, as part of this wildlife corridor plan," he said.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/anna-bligh-releases-election-pledge-to-create-massive-new-national-parks-linking-areas-from-birdsville-to-brisbane/story-fnbt5t29-1226286128923