The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2022 said the ecosystem – which stretches 250 kilometres from Toodyay to Collie – faced a high risk of significant transition or collapse without changes to management practices.

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Wilderness Society WA campaigns manager Patrick Gardner said logging, clearing, mining and burning had all produced major impacts on the south-west native forests for decades.

“The process of bauxite mining, following the clearing of swathes of the Northern Jarrah Forest, involves excavation and a drastic change in the soil composition,” he said.

“Alongside the obvious impacts to jarrah and its understorey, the fragmentation of the landscape continues to box-in the ground-dwelling species that depend on large, intact and functioning ecosystems.”

Alcoa chief executive Roy Harvey last week said the proposal before the EPA was a “full-blown review” but he was confident Alcoa would gain this and other approvals it needed to continue mining in WA for a few more decades.

WA, which Harvey regards as critical to his $12.8 billion company, provided 75 per cent of its bauxite and 71 per cent of its alumina in 2022.

Alcoa’s mines and refineries in WA are 40 per cent owned by ASX-listed Alumina Limited.

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