Since 2015 the Australian government has committed more than $1.5bn of . 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. 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. Explore interactive charts and maps that summarize key statistics about forests in {area}. In 2010, Australia had 38.0Mha of natural forest, extending over 5.1% of its land area. Could AI save the Amazon rainforest? With deforestation comes extinction: Australia is the worst offending country for mammal extinctions. Our analysis of the 2018-2019 data found that shockingly, 92,718 hectares of the 668,208 hectares was koala habitat. Major retailers could, and as good corporate citizens should, chose to only buy deforestation-free beef. Australias Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act was reviewed last year and the government must release the final report, led by the former competition watchdog head Graeme Samuel, in February. Deforestation is Australias hidden emitterlike adding 10 million cars to our roads. To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Nearly 50% of our forest cover has been cleared in the last two centuries, making Australia one of the worst developed countries for deforestation. In 2021, it lost 231kha of natural forest, equivalent to 90.8Mt of CO emissions. The biennial Living Planet Report, published this week, puts . Australias 2019-20 bushfires were too recent to be considered in the analysis which tracked 24 deforestation fronts from 2004 to 2017. Queensland has contributed half of Australia's deforestation since the '70s, primarily to make way for cattle ranching. Its an old colonial idea. The 24 global deforestation fronts identified in the report accounted for 80 per cent of the world's clearing. View an interactive version of this map in ArcGIS Online map viewer. 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. But how much land are we clearing? A key element of the approach adopted in the NFPS involved the negotiation of Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) between the Australian Government and some state governments. Australia on global list for deforestation hotspots: WWF Of that cleared land, 370,900 hectares were forests over 30 years old. But most of the deforestation is hidden from view.". Australia has a total of 134 million hectares of forest, which is equivalent to 17% of Australia's land area. New drone footage has exposed shocking clearing of likely koala habitat in Far North Queensland, as our latest report, Whats at steak?, reveals more than one million hectares of forest was cleared for beef from 2014-2019. This time our 1-kilometre-wide piece of cleared land would stretch 318km, say from Canberra to just beyond Sydney. Only when an area drops below that 20 per cent threshold is it registered as forest loss. It is also sufficiently broad to encompass areas of trees that are sometimes described as woodlands. This threatens a tourism industry worth $6 billion to Australia. This change is needed throughout the whole supply chain, from producers through to retailers, such as supermarkets and fast food restaurants. Australia has one of the highest rates of land clearing in the world. Regional Forestry Hubs boundaries (2022) is the spatial dataset of the boundaries for the Regional Forestry Hubs. If we want to protect our climate, and the ecosystems that make our lives possible, theres no role for deforestation in Australias future. The moratorium on logging of around 356,000 hectares of that forest lifted in April of this year, and there are fears that the forestry wars of old could kick off again. 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. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians, whose land we work upon and we pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. On 11/02/22 the government officially listed the koala as Endangered in Queensland, NSW and the ACT. Let's look to a green recovery that's built on conservation, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture.". The data on this page will also be updated at that time. Australia is the only nation in the developed world to make the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) global list of deforestation hotspots. 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. RFAs are 20-year plans for the conservation and sustainable management of Australias native forests. Learn more about these deforestation hotspots. But in 2012, a peace deal was struck between loggers and protestors. 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. It will take more than a century for central banks and other financial institutions to reach gender balance in leadership, according to the Gender Balance Index 2023. In addition to the NFPS and the RFAs, the Australian Government has a number of forest policies to achieve key outcomes for Australias forest and forest industries. View an interactive version of this map in ArcGIS Online map viewer. For species like the koala, we know the biggest problem is the destruction of their forest homes. The NGA data also fails to pick up forest thinning, according to Dr Taylor. The environment minister, Sussan Ley, declined to comment on WWFs new findings as she had not seen the report. This map shows the distribution of forests in northern Australia, by forest subtype: PNG [1.7 MB], PDF [1.0 MB]. While there is increasing community support for the protection of forests, NSW laws explicitly reduce the right of communities to have a say about what happens to the states 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. First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we Land clearing in Australia - Wikipedia Illegal logging - DAFF 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. This map shows the distribution of Australia's native forests by crown cover class (i.e. '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 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]. Monitoring satellite imagery and recording suspicious clearing. Forest policy in Australia is developed and implemented at the national, state and territory levels. 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. The related common names do not have capitalised initial letters (e.g. Despite a range of reports recommending the urgent protection of unburnt patches to limit species decline, the NSW government continues to allow industrial logging at a rate of around 14,000 hectares per yeareven in extreme risk areas! On 12 September 2017, Australian, state and territory forestry ministers issued a joint ministerial statement of support for the forestry industry. Deforestation and logging in Australia: an assault on wildlife - in It can't be done, forestry industry says. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Despite Queensland restoring some restrictions in 2018, eastern Australia remains a deforestation front. There are questions over the methodology used in that system which we'll get to. 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. State of the forests Calling on big business to source and sell products free from deforestation. Deforestation and tree-clearing is the major cause of habitat loss for many threatened and endangered species. All comments are moderated. Deforestation is Australia's hidden emitterlike adding 10 million cars to our roads. Thats why WWF-Australia has launched Regenerate Australia, the largest wildlife and nature regeneration program in the nations history. Beef farming in Australia is driving significant deforestation, including in the habitats of threatened species, according to a new satellite analysis. Acacia).. by Basten Gokkon on 21 April 2023. More than 100 nations including Australia this month signed up to stop or reverse deforestation by 2030. 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. 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. Agriculture was the biggest driver of land clearing in Tasmania. Intensive palm oil production is also creating all kinds of environmental fall-out, including air, soil and water pollution, and soil erosion. A total of 177,900 hectares were cleared in Victoria, with 16,300 of that classified as forest over 30 years old. Tree-clearing | WWF Australia Land clearing in Australia: How does your state (or territory) compare? Australia spends billions planting trees - then wipes out carbon gains Operation Artemis: Colombia's failed military operation to stop On 12 September 2017, Australian, state and territory forestry ministers issued a joint ministerial statement of support for the forestry industry. Fact check: Is Queensland clearing land as fast as Brazil? Your feedback has been submitted. "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. An important secondary cause was logging, which the report says remains significant in some places in eastern Australia. It stuffs our soil and water, suffocates the Reef, kills wildlife, drains our carbon budgetand leaves our towns and suburbs hotter and less liveable. 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'. The 202223 October Portfolio Budget Statements were released on 25 October 2022. Using a newly developed satellite data classification technique, researchers from Geoscience Australia's Digital Earth Australia (DEA) program have created a series of maps that show how mangrove locations have shifted year-to-year in response to storm events and a changing climate. "We know that the general public is outraged by this whenever they hear about it. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. Subscribe to FS Sustainability to get the latest ESG news and research. "Deforestation in Australia took a marked downturn from 2004 to 2009. Over Christmas 2022, it tried to sneak out its land clearing data, the Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS), for 2019-2020. As important catchment zones are stripped bare, the Great Barrier Reef is exposed to a deadly cocktail of silt, animal faeces and industrial fertilisers. He estimated that in Queensland and NSW alone 970,349ha were cleared in the years 2004 to 2017. Our 1km wide strip of cleared land would stretch for a whopping 24,466 kilometres roughly all the way around Australia twice (minus Tassie). Through these regions, forests grow on soils that vary from ancient, fragile and infertile soils, to recent, fertile soils of volcanic origin. The categories are: Indigenous owned and managed; Indigenous managed; Indigenous co-managed; having Other special rights (Note: Indigenous is used here to refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people): PNG [0.8 MB], PDF [2.3 MB]. The next biggest contributor to the data was "grazing modified pastures" at around 125,000 hectares. We recognise First Nations as the custodians of land and water across Australia and pay our respects to Elders past and present. 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. 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).