'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. 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. 2023 The Wilderness Society, 5 things you need to know about Deforestation in Australia, majority of landholders are eager to embrace new ways, 7 ways to protect WA's most valuable natural asset. And around 73,285ha of thator a whopping 80%was destroyed for beef production. First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we In a statement to the ABC, a spokesperson for the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources said that is was "misleading to make simple comparisons" between the different reporting methods, and that the Department was confident its records are "complete and accurate". Everything you need to know about the deforestation crisis taking place across Australia. . The latest figures show that deforestation in Queensland is still rampant, damaging the health of the Great Barrier Reef, destroying biodiversity and worsening climate change. Whats a tree worth? Of that cleared land, 370,900 hectares were forests over 30 years old. This map shows the location of regions where forests are managed under a Regional Forest Agreement: PNG [0.8 MB], PDF [2.6 MB]. This map shows Australia's forests in the National Reserve System, by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) protected area category: PNG [0.8 MB], PDF [2.5 MB]. Despite the clearing of more than 3.5 million hectares nationally during the 2010-2018 period, according to the National Greenhouse Accounts(NGA) data there has been a net increase in tree cover in Australia during that time. Australian mangroves are dispersed . To get to that conclusion, they have compared the amount of cleared land (3.78 million hectares) with the amount of land regrown (4.19 million hectares), to come up with a "net forest clearing" figure of negative-401,000 hectares. "Queensland's SLATs data undergoes extensive manual editing and verification to ensure a high level of confidence in the data for Queensland's monitoring and reporting requirements.". The 24 global deforestation . If we want to protect our climate, and the ecosystems that make our lives possible, theres no role for deforestation in Australias future. 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. The lion's share of land cleared in Western Australia was for agriculture, horticulture and forestry. Deforestation is Australia's hidden emitterlike adding 10 million cars to our roads. 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. 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. Australia's land clearing rate is once again among the highest in the . Australia's illegal logging prohibition laws The inaccuracies and lack of context in this article as originally published unduly focused on the role of native forestry in land-clearing. This time our 1-kilometre-wide piece of cleared land would stretch 318km, say from Canberra to just beyond Sydney. This continued destruction is devastating for the environment and wildlife. Although Operation Artemis cost Colombia more than 3.4 billion Colombian Pesos (about $765,000), deforestation did not slow down, going from 158,894 ha (about 392,636 acres) lost to deforestation . We can't protect nature and wildlife, safeguard human . To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The data for the 2018-19 reporting periods, particularly from Queensland and New South Wales, will determine whether that has changed. Under commercial forestry activities, trees are regrown after harvesting. Intensive palm oil production is also creating all kinds of environmental fall-out, including air, soil and water pollution, and soil erosion. News, research and analysis of ESG integration factors for ASX listed companies and investors, * Mandatory fields. Learn more about deforestation in Queensland. Deforestation in Australia has now reached globally significant levels, driven largely by land clearing in Queensland. Want more science plus health, environment, tech and more? Deforestation puts human health and the health of our planet at risk. This gives you a picture of how much land has been cleared, right across Australia, from 2010 until the most recently available data in 2018. On 12 September 2017, Australian, state and territory forestry ministers issued a joint ministerial statement of support for the forestry industry. 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. A new report from the World Wide Fund for Nature names eastern Australia among 24 global deforestation fronts the only developed nation on the list. About half of Australia's Commercial plantations are exotic softwood (predominantly Pinus radiata), while the other half are hardwood (predominantly eucalypt species). Additional references: State of the Environment report 2021, We recognise First Nations as the custodians of land and water across Australia and pay our respects to Elders past and present. Knee-high saplings are not a forest and do not balance out the ongoing destruction of older forests decades or centuries old, he said. 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). Forest policy in Australia is developed and implemented at the national, state and territory levels. 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. The following selection of maps is from the Australian forest profiles 2019: This map shows the distribution of the Acacia native forest type across Australia: PNG [2.2 MB], PDF [0.5 MB]. Taylor said the analysis focused on so-called hotspot parts of the eastern states where land-clearing rates were highest. If we convert Tasmania's 66,500 cleared hectares to a 1-kilometre-wide strip of land, it would be 665-kilometres long or the distance from Melbourne to Canberra. Ecuador was originally largely forested, but . Undertaking research and collecting data to support informed decisions and policies. Australia's land clearing rate is once again among the highest in the world. Building stronger and more sustainable agriculture, fisheries, forestry and land care. Like Tasmania, native forest logging in Victoria has been responsible for clearing a relatively small area compared to agriculture. Almost two-thirds of NSW native forests burned during the Black Summer Bushfires, devastating huge swathes of threatened species habitat. In WWFs new report Deforestation fronts: Drivers and responses in a changing world, published today, the deforestation fronts have been expanded to 24 with eastern Australia remaining on the list. Below are the key maps from Australias State of the Forests Report 2018. WWF is Australias most trusted conservation organisation. Deforestation in Australia is a major environmental concern, leading to the loss of millions of native animals, including endangered species, and destruction of forests and woodlands. 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'. This makes it easier for you to meet your legal requirements. The latest Queensland governments SLATS figures for the year 2019-20 shows: This most recent 2019-20 data was released on 16 December 2022. Only 50% of Australia's forests and bushlands remain intact compared to pre-European arrival. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), Australia's forest and forest products industries, Accelerate Adoption of Wood Processing Innovation Program, Exports of unprocessed wood (wood export licensing), Commercial environmental forestry: Summary of the 4 year program, Optimising transport choice for plantation harvests, Why a National Indigenous Forestry Strategy, Plantations for Australia: the 2020 Vision, Forests and People - the Social Assessment, Ecologically Sustainable Forest Management, People jobs and communities - Social assessments, Annual reports and five year reviews by state, World Heritage Sub-theme: Eucalypt-dominated vegetation, Future of Our Forest Kit - Media Releases, Australia's sustainable forest management, Australia's Sustainable Forest Management Framework of Criteria and Indicators 2009, Development of Project Planning and Evaluation for Farm Forestry, The development of an effective methodology to capture forest type condition and volume data for privately managed forests, National principles related to wood production in plantations, Australia's Long Term Ecological Research Forest Sites, Mechanical Bushfire Fuel Load Reduction Programme, Monitoring the social and economic impacts of forestry, Preparing forest industries for the future - climate change research, The Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement Industry Development Programs, Research into alternatives to clear felling in old growth forests, TCFA Research into alternatives to clearfelling (Final Report), TCFA Research into alternatives to clearfelling (Operating Plan), Research into alternatives to the use of 1080, Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement Media Releases, Tasmanian Forest Contractors Exit Assistance Program, Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement, Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement - Contractors Voluntary Exit Grants Program, Voluntary Exit Grants Program frequently asked questions, Terms of reference for an independent facilitator, Forestry contacts, agencies and organisations, Importing timber and wood related products, Australia's bilateral relationships on forestry, Illegal Logging: Regional Capacity Building Partnership, Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management (APFNet), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Tropical Timber Organization, Report on the visit to China by NSW Rural Fire Service Forest Fire Management, Farm Forestry Plantations and Water publications, Growing a Better Australia-A Billion Trees for Jobs and Growth, National Forest Industries Plan Progress Report, Australian Forestry - planning tomorrow for today, Growing a Better Australia A Billion Trees for Jobs and Growth.