Following public outcry, New Zealand drops plan to mine protected areas
August 3rd, 2010Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com
The New Zealand government has caved to public pressure, announcing that it is dropping all plans to mine in protected areas. The plan to open 7,000 hectares of protected areas to mining would have threatened a number of rare and endemic species, including two frogs that are prehistoric relics virtually unchanged from amphibian fossils 150 million years old: Archey’s frog (Leiopelma archeyi) and Hochstetter’s frog (Leiopelma hochstetteri).
Read the full story: http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0720-hance_nz_mining.html
