Over 43 million hectares, an area roughly the size of Morocco, was lost in these 'deforestation fronts' between 2004 and 2017. The southwest of Western Australia has been experiencing a long-term climate shift since the 1970s, which researchers have attributed to historical deforestation resulting in decreased rainfall. Five reasons investors should adopt an active versus passive ESG approach, Climate change is changing the outlook for energy utilities, Bank Australia sets interim 2030 net zero target, UniSuper updates progress on net zero target, Science-Based Targets an indicator of future climate action: Federated Hermes, Woolworths commits to ambitious GHG emissions cuts, Wilderness Society links deforestation to beef production, supply chain risk, Coca Cola, WWF-Australia, farmers mark 10 years of Project Catalyst, Global Canopy Programme appoints executive director, NCD launches Soft Commodities Forest-risk Assessment Tool, CDP, We Mean Business partner for Road to Paris. But critics say this does not represent what is happening in our forests from a wildlife conservation or carbon storage perspective. With deforestation comes extinction: Australia is the worst offending country for mammal extinctions. For some perspective, the state cleared the equivalent of 1000 football fields per day in 2015-16. The WWF report lists a variety of ways in which governments around the world have tried to limit deforestation. The report says the comprehensive failure of the federal government to crack down on illegal clearing has limited the effectiveness of Australian environmental laws in protecting some habitats. (We will update these figures to reflect the new stats for 2019-20 as soon as possible.). Carbon once stored in trees and soil goes back into the atmosphere. This includes Australias diverse native forests and plantations, regardless of age. The analysis identifies 24 deforestation fronts worldwide where a total of 43 million hectares of forest was destroyed in the period from 2004 until 2017. , Over 92,718 hectares of koala habitat were cleared in Queensland in just one year (2018-2019), with 80% of that area destroyed for beef production. So despite our reputation for untamed wilderness and charismatic wildlife, it's perhaps no surprise that Australia has one of the highest rates of animal extinction in the world. State and territory governments have primary responsibility for forest management. There is no official data on how widespread this may be, however Dr Taylor said he had found numerous instances by trawling through satellite imagery several of which he showed to the ABC. Australia has strengthened seasonal measures to manage the risk of BMSB. The threats manifest themselves in the form of deforestation and forest degradation. The rampant deforestation for monoculture plantation and logging in western Indonesian Borneo has exacerbated the extinction risks of three plant species endemic . The latest Queensland governments SLATS figures for the year 2019-20 shows: This most recent 2019-20 data was released on 16 December 2022. State and territory governments have primary responsibility for forest management. Our consumption, per person, out-strips that of people . Want more science plus health, environment, tech and more? Land clearing in Australia - Wikipedia by David Tarazona, Julin Parra De Moya 27 April 2023. The Regional Forestry Hubs were created under the National Forest Industries Plan[PDF 3.1 MB] and associated budget measures to identify economic and social opportunities and benefits in regions with existing concentrations of wood supply resources, processing and/or manufacturing operations, established transport links, and strong potential for growth. However, native forest and plantation forestry only contributed to around 86,000 hectares of clearing in this period. Operation Artemis: Colombia's failed military operation to stop RFAs are 20-year plans for the conservation and sustainable management of Australias native forests. Despite Queensland restoring some restrictions in 2018, eastern Australia remains a deforestation front. View an interactive version of this map in ArcGIS Online map viewer. The NGA data also fails to pick up forest thinning, according to Dr Taylor. This map shows the distribution of forests in northern Australia, by forest type: PNG [1.4 MB], PDF [0.9 MB]. It stuffs our soil and water, suffocates the Reef, kills wildlife, drains our carbon budgetand leaves our towns and suburbs hotter and less liveable. acacias). 'Commercial plantations' are plantations grown on a commercial scale for wood production, while 'Other forest' includes small areas of mostly non-industrial plantations and planted forests of various types including sandalwood plantations, small farm forestry and agroforestry plantations, plantations within the reserve system, and plantations regarded as non-commercial. The main cause of deforestation is agriculture (poorly planned infrastructure is emerging as a big threat too) and the main cause of forest degradation is illegal logging. Australia remains one of the worlds hotspots for deforestation according to a new report by WWF, which finds an area six times the size of Tasmania has been cleared globally since 2004. Reclearing takes the state's entire land clearing tally to 663,000 hectares. Australia on global list for deforestation hotspots: WWF About 2,000 years ago, 80 percent of Western Europe was forested; today the figure is 34 percent. All rights reserved. Australia's native forests occur in a broad range of geographic landscapes and climatic environments, and contain a wide array of mostly endemic species (that is, species found nowhere else) combining to form unique and complex ecosystems. Operation Artemis: Colombia's failed military operation to stop deforestation. A DES spokesperson told the ABC that "SLATs applies a highly rigorous methodology". 2023 The Wilderness Society, Drivers of deforestation and land clearing in Queensland, Qld koala habitat clearing linked to beef production: 2018-19, Australian beef and deforestation: Corporate scorecard, Australia is facing a deforestation crisis, with an area equivalent to MCG being destroyed every 86 seconds. Our analysis of the 2018-2019 data found that shockingly, 92,718 hectares of the 668,208 hectares was koala habitat. If we want to protect Australia's remarkable biodiversity, including its most iconic animals, we must protect habitat. The NFPS provides the framework within which the governments work cooperatively to achieve their vision for sustainable management of Australia's forests, while ensuring that community expectations are met. Despite Queensland restoring some restrictions in 2018, eastern Australia remains a deforestation front. Of that, around 73,825 ha, or 80%, was bulldozed for beef production. Eastern Australia is one of the top 24 global deforestation front, making Australia the only developed nation on a list from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Again, the lion's share of that regrowth 2.7 million hectares has reportedly happened in Queensland, and to a lesser extent in New South Wales. It is estimated that up to 10%, or approximately $900 million, of our timber imports could come from high-risk sources every year. Over roughly the last 20 years, koalas numbers have declined by almost 50% across Queensland alone. Tens of millions of native animals are killed annually by this scale of clearing. 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Global infrastructure consulting firm AECOM has announced the creation of a specialized team dedicated to delivering nature-based client solutions in Australia and New Zealand. The once abundant koala is rapidly vanishing from New South Wales and Queensland. At WWF, we work in Australia and in our Asia-Pacific backyard to protect endangered species and habitats, meet the challenge of climate change, and build a world where people live in harmony with nature. Calling on big business to source and sell products free from deforestation. The six tenure classes used for forests in the National Forest Inventory are amalgamations of the wide range of classes used by various state and territory jurisdictions. Additional context has been added to note that Regional Forest Agreements include environmental protections; and a video claiming to show illegal logging has been removed. We acknowledge sovereignty was never ceded.Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website may contain images, names and voices of people who are deceased. In the 60s and 70s, agriculturalists in Queenslands Brigalow Belt were actually fined for letting their land regenerate. According to Dr Taylor that means a dense forest can be thinned from 95 per cent canopy to 21 per cent canopy, for instance, without registering as having been cleared under the NGA method. ACT is tiny, and since 2011 its forestry industry figures are reported as part of New South Wales. (modern). The sections below are key background information to reporting in Australia's State of the Forests Reportand related information on the Forests Australia website.SeeAustralia's State of the Forests Reportfor detailed information on Australia's forests. In Australia, the destruction of vegetation for cattle pasture is the most significant driver of forest loss and degradation, but the continued logging of native forests in a number of eastern states is named as an important secondary cause. The series of billboards across Brisbane drew attention to the devastating effects that deforestation and land clearing have on wildlife across Queensland. 'Glum future for the platypus': why the elusive mammal is disappearing under our noses, Australian wildlife 20 times more likely to encounter deadly feral cats than native predators, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. The inaccuracies and lack of context in this article as originally published unduly focused on the role of native forestry in land-clearing. Thats why WWF-Australia has launched Regenerate Australia, the largest wildlife and nature regeneration program in the nations history. "It's ridiculous to say there is more forest [now than 10 years ago]," he said. This map shows the distribution of the Eucalypt native forest type across Australia: PNG [3.2 MB], PDF [0.7 MB]. But Dr Taylor said ultimately stronger laws are what drive down land clearing. This map shows the location of regions where forests are managed under a Regional Forest Agreement: PNG [0.8 MB], PDF [2.6 MB]. For species like the koala, we know the biggest problem is the destruction of their forest homes. In the 13 years from 2004 to 2017, an area of forest six times the size of Tasmania, more than 43 million hectares, was lost in the 24 deforestation fronts. Building stronger and more sustainable agriculture, fisheries, forestry and land care. This time our 1-kilometre-wide piece of land would stretch from Hobart to the southern suburbs or Brisbane. The following map was prepared and published by ABARES: This map provides a detailed snapshot of the forestry industry, including the location of major wood processing facilities, native forest tenure, hardwood and softwood plantations, as well as roads and forestry ports: PDF [12.1 MB] and higher resolution version PDF [36.6 MB]. To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Thanks! Of this total forest area, determined as at 2016, 132 million hectares (98%) are 'Native forests', 1.95 million hectares are 'Commercial plantations' and 0.47 million hectares are 'Other forest'. Thats the misunderstanding driving our countrys deforestation crisis. The next biggest contributor to the data was "grazing modified pastures" at around 125,000 hectares. The 24 global deforestation fronts identified in the report accounted for 80 per cent of the world's clearing. This time our 1-kilometre-wide piece of cleared land would stretch 318km, say from Canberra to just beyond Sydney. 93% of forests and bushland bulldozed were for livestock pasture development, of which 73% was for pastures on beef properties; 78% of all deforestation of endangered regional ecosystems was for pasture development on beef properties; Deforestation for beef accounted for 73% of deforestation of koala habitat, while 83% of brigalow belt clearing was for beef; Deforestation for beef pastures destroyed habitats for 388 nationally threatened species and 14 threatened ecological communities; 60% of the clearing was deforestation of either mature forests or high value regrowth forests (more than 15 years old). , Australia has lost 27% of its rainforest, 19% of open forest, 11% of woodland forest, and 28% of mallee forest since 1750., Australia holds the record for the highest number of mammal extinctions globally. More than 40 per cent of the country's forests and woodlands are estimated to have been cleared since European colonisation. We can even reverse our emissions in the process. We recognise First Nations as the custodians of land and water across Australia and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Bulldozers destroy over 740,000 ha of forest and bush every year. by Basten Gokkon on 21 April 2023. The TCFD framework - What is it and how can it be applied to investment analysis? There are questions over the methodology used in that system which we'll get to. On 11/02/22 the government officially listed the koala as Endangered in Queensland, NSW and the ACT. Educating Australians on the benefits of intact ecosystems. Dr Taylor said his Pervasive Inaction report exposed poor enforcement of the national environment law, revealing that almost 250,000 hectares of threatened species habitat were destroyed between 2016 and 2018 in Queensland, with no evidence of any referral and approval under the EPBC Act. Over Christmas 2022, it tried to sneak out its land clearing data, the Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS), for 2019-2020. Eastern Australia is now a recognised global deforestation hotspot, alongside places including the Amazon, the Congo and Borneo. Deforestation and logging in Australia: an assault on wildlife - in Forest destruction is a threat to more than 700 endangered Australian plants and animals and WWF-Australia has previously highlighted the effects of clearing conducted without threatened species assessments. Below are the key maps from Australias State of the Forests Report 2018. That's because of stronger laws coming into play in Queensland and New South Wales.". Australia is a world leader in chopping down trees and wiping out animals: two questionable accomplishments that are tightly connected. Australia is not immune to the trade of illegally logged timber. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. statistics, Australia's Indigenous land and forest estate, Forestry regional profiles - data visualisation, Australia's native forest types - data visualisation, Australias State of the Forests Report 2018, an analysis by the CRC for Developing Northern Australia, Boundary maps for the eleven Regional Forestry Hubs, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website. Everything you need to know about the deforestation crisis taking place across Australia. Rethinking ethics and code of conduct training, Key sustainability factors impacting business in 2022, From the courtroom to the boardroom: climate change risks and remedies, Why sustainability matters in real estate, Measuring sustainability performance: comparing an SDG score with ESG ratings, Deep impact: the next step in sustainable investing, We must approach public equities with an 'impact' mindset. Maps of Australia's forests are available on the Forest maps page. Nearly 50% of our forest cover has been cleared in the last two centuries, making Australia one of the worst developed countries for deforestation. Australias 2019-20 bushfires were too recent to be considered in the analysis which tracked 24 deforestation fronts from 2004 to 2017. Bulldozing trees worsens climate changecarbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when the fallen trees are left to burn or rot. Land clearing in Australia: How does your state (or territory - ABC But critics say RFAs allow logging operations to bypass federal environment laws and often result in the habitat of threatened species being cleared without any environmental impact assessment. Our 1km wide strip of cleared land would stretch for a whopping 24,466 kilometres roughly all the way around Australia twice (minus Tassie). The majority of the 31,800 hectares cleared in the NT was for agriculture. Deforestation is the purposeful clearing of forested land. Culture is how an organisation thinks, acts, and interacts. We enhance our agricultural industries and trade, and manage the threat of biosecurity risks to Australia. Just over 49% of alerts have been in areas classified as high or very high risk. If this happened, the whole industry would need to clean up its act. Dr Taylor said eastern Australias forests have been declared a global biodiversity hotspot. Land clearing in the ACT was the lowest of any Australian state or territory between 2010 and 2018. When comparing the data for land clearing in Queensland from the SLATs method and the NGA method, there are vast discrepancies between the two discrepancies which cast further doubt on the idea that Australia's tree budget is "in the black". Regional Forestry Hubs map graphic only PDF [0.6 MB], We aren't able to respond to your individual comments or questions. Native forests are categorised in Australia's National Forest Inventory into eight national forest types named after their key genus or structural form: Acacia, Callitris, Casuarina, Eucalypt, Mangrove, Melaleuca, Rainforest, and Other native forest (which includes a range of minor native forest types that are named after their dominant genera, including Agonis, Atalaya, Banksia, Hakea, Grevillea, Heterodendron, Leptospermum, Lophostemon and Syncarpia). How you can save the fate of our Australian forests with one signature On the Koala Coast, numbers are down by 80%. It's clear that the destruction of forest and bushland across Queensland continues to be the biggest contributor to Australia's terrible deforestation record. The NGA method is based on satellite imagery where 20 per cent canopy cover or greater is classified as forest. Wilderness Society | Queensland deforestation Regional Forestry Hubs boundaries (2022) is the spatial dataset of the boundaries for the Regional Forestry Hubs. As the only developed country with a deforestation front, it's no surprise Australias mammal extinction rates are the highest in the world. In the climate crisis, theres economic opportunity for landholders. The 24 fronts identified in the report are: 10 West Africa Liberia/Ivory Coast/Ghana, 12 Central Africa Gabon/Cameroon/Republic of Congo. Thanks! Australia's land clearing rate is once again among the highest in the This change is needed throughout the whole supply chain, from producers through to retailers, such as supermarkets and fast food restaurants. Why so low? The main driver of clearing in New South Wales is agriculture. This wastes up to 10% of Australias carbon budget. Wilderness Society | Deforestation Australia has a total of 134 million hectares of forest, which is equivalent to 17% of Australia's land area. He estimated that in Queensland and NSW alone 970,349ha were cleared in the years 2004 to 2017. Ecuador was originally largely forested, but . That will not change until we see rates of destruction go down, he said. Read our WA native vegetation report detailing 7 ways to protect WA's most valuable natural asset. These stats show Australia's in the midst of a deforestation crisis that's affecting our wildlife, climate and future. We aren't able to respond to your individual comments or questions. We acknowledge sovereignty was never ceded.Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website may contain images, names and voices of people who are deceased. The definition of forest used by Australia's National Forest Inventory is: An area, incorporating all living and non-living components, that is dominated by trees having usually a single stem and a mature or potentially mature stand height exceeding 2 metres and with existing or potential crown cover of overstorey strata about equal to or greater than 20 per cent. Get all the latest science stories from across the ABC. Except where otherwise explicitly authorised, any material on this website which may be construed as electoral material or an electoral matter under any State or Commonwealth Law is authorised by M. Brennan on behalf of The Wilderness Society Ltd, 132 Davey Street, Hobart Tasmania 7000. Agriculture was the reason for most of the clearing, with "grazing native vegetation" accounting for more than 1.8 million hectares of clearing. However, the report says Forest fires are likely to increase due to longer and more extreme dry seasons as a result of climate change. Land clearing in Australia: How does your state (or territory) compare? The Queensland government tightened land-clearing rules in 2018 but Taylor said there was not enough data available yet to determine the effect of those changes. In our home state of Queensland. Deforestation puts human health and the health of our planet at risk. We recognise First Nations as the custodians of land and water across Australia and pay our respects to Elders past and present. This map shows the distribution of forests in northern Australia, by forest tenure: PNG [1.3 MB], PDF [0.8 MB]. To stop extinction Australia needs to step up our efforts to protect critical forest habitats for Australian wildlife, particularly unburned low fire-risk refuges, and let those that have been cleared regenerate. Koalas live in gum trees, also commonly known as eucalyptus trees. The beef industry must show leadership and urgently change its practices to stop selling beef linked to deforestation. Boundary maps for the eleven Regional Forestry Hubs are hosted on the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website along with information about the Regional Forestry Hubs.. Taylor said the analysis focused on so-called hotspot parts of the eastern states where land-clearing rates were highest. "People do see their local favourite patch of bush being bulldozed for a housing or industrial estate, or a road That turns out to be a small percentage of the total destruction in Eastern Australia. But the National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) figures for Queensland show only 304,000 and 254,400 hectares were cleared for the 2017 and 2018 periods almost 190,000 hectares less. In contrast to New South Wales, Queensland's land clearing laws were tightened in 2018 and it's expected that clearing figures will drop significantly in the coming reporting periods. Deforestation is Australias hidden emitterlike adding 10 million cars to our roads. Data on this page are from Australia's State of the Forests Report 2018 (SOFR), with data up to or as at 2016. The ANZ-based team aims to address complex problems related to climate change, biodiversity loss, and emissions reduction. Deforestation is Australia's hidden emitterlike adding 10 million cars to our roads. Statistics - including rates of forest change and forest extent - can be . State of the forests Thanks! Except where otherwise explicitly authorised, any material on this website which may be construed as electoral material or an electoral matter under any State or Commonwealth Law is authorised by M. Brennan on behalf of The Wilderness Society Ltd, 132 Davey Street, Hobart Tasmania 7000. Its primarily driven by agriculture (mostly for beef production), mining and urban development. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is committing almost three quarters of its Australian Recycling Investment Fund to develop a flagship construction and demolition (C&D) recycling facility in Queensland. Deforestationthe reduction or complete removal of native forest and bushlandhas escalated over the recent years to reach globally significant levels. View interactive maps of Australia's key spatial forest datasets in ArcGIS Online map viewer: Boundary maps for the eleven Regional Forestry Hubsare hosted on the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry websitealong withinformation about the Regional Forestry Hubs. The biennial Living Planet Report, published this week, puts . WWF-Australia 2018, All rights reserved. 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