Australia has a total of 134 million hectares of forest, which is equivalent to 17% of Australia's land area. 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. Sediments and chemicals run off cleared areas into waterways that flow out to the Great Barrier Reefsmothering this already struggling icon. To give life a chance, we need strong, sensible deforestation laws. 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. 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. Deforestation in Australia: Drivers, trends and policy responses Historical clearing has caused local climates to increase by up to 2 degrees . If we go back to our 1-kilometre-wide strip of land, South Australia's total clearing stretches almost 1,100km from Newcastle to Melbourne. They are designed to provide certainty for forest-based industries, forest-dependent communities and achieve conservation outcomes. While Tasmania's area of land clearing is more than double the Northern Territory's, the total land area of Tasmania is only one-twentieth the size. The report warns that nearly half of the standing forests in the 24 deforestation fronts have suffered some type of fragmentation and trends suggest clearing will persist unless countries act to protect them. Note: The names of the national native forest types have capitalised initial letters (e.g. Thats the misunderstanding driving our countrys deforestation crisis. Australia spends billions planting trees - then wipes out carbon gains 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. We need to make this an issue they cant ignore, so that Queensland's spectacular forests and bushland, home to some of the most iconic animals in the world, remain intact and healthy. Illegal logging - DAFF Tens of millions of native animals are killed annually by this scale of clearing. WWF's new report Deforestation fronts: Drivers and responses in a changing world , names 24 locations across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia and Oceania. This wood isnt used for anythingits burned or left to rot. In 2017, New South Wales relaxed its native vegetation clearing laws, however the impact that has had on land clearing is expected to show up in the reporting periods for 2019 and 2020. View an interactive version of this map in ArcGIS Online map viewer. If we want to protect our climate, and the ecosystems that make our lives possible, theres no role for deforestation in Australias future. About 2,000 years ago, 80 percent of Western Europe was forested; today the figure is 34 percent. On the Koala Coast, numbers are down by 80%. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. "Deforestation in Australia took a marked downturn from 2004 to 2009. Meanwhile, Australia continues to be compared with some of the worst offending countries in the world when it comes to land clearing. Forest policy in Australia is developed and implemented at the national, state and territory levels. Ecuador was originally largely forested, but . (We will update these figures to reflect the new stats for 2019-20 as soon as possible.). Actual ESG: growth investing in change | Baillie Gifford, A year in wealth management - what it means for 2023, Nicki Hutley: Policy, the budget and risks for investors. Eastern Australia is now a recognised global deforestation hotspot, alongside places including the Amazon, the Congo and Borneo. Through these regions, forests grow on soils that vary from ancient, fragile and infertile soils, to recent, fertile soils of volcanic origin. Calling on big business to source and sell products free from deforestation. Using satellite imagery of forest cover and deforestation events across Australia . But in April this year, the Victorian Environment Department updated and extended five regional forest agreements (RFAs) covering native forest logging in different parts of the state. Dr Taylor said claims that forest area has actually expanded in Australia were misleading. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. 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. In 2015, WWF's Saving Forests at Risk analysis identified 11 global deforestation fronts including eastern Australia. State and territory governments have primary responsibility for forest management. Of the 288,400 hectares cleared in Western Australia, 68,7000 hectares were primary forests at least 30 years old. Over roughly the last 20 years, koalas numbers have declined by almost 50% across Queensland alone. 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. Australia is a global deforestation front, alongside Borneo, the Amazon and the Congo. Of that cleared land, 370,900 hectares were forests over 30 years old. 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. Knee-high saplings are not a forest and do not balance out the ongoing destruction of older forests decades or centuries old, he said. 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. Why deforestation is a matter of concern for everyone? Everyone has a role in supporting our biosecurity system. But in Eastern Australia, agriculture is by far the biggest driver of deforestation. The related formal genus names are italicised and have capitalised initial letters (e.g. The beef industry must show leadership and urgently change its practices to stop selling beef linked to deforestation. Click here to access all of the maps from Australia's State of the Forests Report 2018. Annual subscription for $129.95 for 1 year. Also like Tasmania, native forest logging in Tasmania has been a hotly contested issue. About half of Australia's Commercial plantations are exotic softwood (predominantly Pinus radiata), while the other half are hardwood (predominantly eucalypt species). Whats a tree worth? The Queensland government's own data shows what a massive problem deforestation is in the state. This map shows the distribution of burnt forest in Australia by the number of times each hectare was burnt in the period 201112 to 201516: PNG [0.9 MB], PDF [2.1MB]. Deforestation Fronts - Factsheets | WWF National Forest Industries Plan:The Australian Governments National Forest Industries Plan. Deforestation and logging in Australia: an assault on wildlife - in Building stronger and more sustainable agriculture, fisheries, forestry and land care. Australias 2019-20 bushfires were too recent to be considered in the analysis which tracked 24 deforestation fronts from 2004 to 2017. The Deforestation Fronts report offers an in-depth analysis of 24 'deforestation fronts' around the globe, from Latin America to Africa and Asia. An analysis of the imagery for Unearthed has identified 13,500 hectares of deforestation since 2018 - an area more than twice the size of Manhattan - across 57 beef cattle properties in . . To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The total area of land cleared in Queensland was 2,446,600 hectares. Let's look to a green recovery that's built on conservation, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture.". Communities need a real voice in environmental decision-making to have an effective say on the future of NSW forests. To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The 202223 October Portfolio Budget Statements were released on 25 October 2022. Carbon once stored in trees and soil goes back into the atmosphere. 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. Australian beef industry linked to destruction of forests home to Koalas live in the forests of Australia and therefore are highly affected by deforestation. This map shows the distribution of burnt forest in areas of northern and southern Australia, by the number of times each hectare was burnt in the period 201112 to 201516: PNG [1.3 MB], PDF [1.3MB]. Despite Queensland restoring some restrictions in 2018, eastern Australia remains a deforestation front. Registered Charity Number: ACN 001 594 074 | NSW License Number: CFN 13143. 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. Australia has about 3% of the world's forest area, and globally is the country with the seventh largest forest area. 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 the Casuarina native forest type across Australia: PNG [1.9 MB], PDF [0.5 MB]. Learn more about these deforestation hotspots. In some regions, forests extend from these wetter, coastal and sub-coastal areas into central, drier parts of the continent. Australia is the only nation in the developed world to make the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) global list of deforestation hotspots. This map shows the distribution of Australia's native forests by crown cover class (i.e. 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. The ANZ-based team aims to address complex problems related to climate change, biodiversity loss, and emissions reduction. In a country of diverse landscapes, lutruwita / Tasmania stands a world apart. 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. Here we are, a developed country, chipping away, whereas every other developed country in the world has stopped doing that, Taylor said. This map shows the location of regions where forests are managed under a Regional Forest Agreement: PNG [0.8 MB], PDF [2.6 MB]. 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. acacias). 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 . "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. Agriculture was the biggest driver of land clearing in Tasmania. We've driven 29 mammals to extinction since European colonisation and more than 1,700 others are threatened or endangered. Wilderness Society | 10 facts about deforestation in Australia This map shows the distribution of the Eucalypt native forest type across Australia: PNG [3.2 MB], PDF [0.7 MB]. More than 43 million hectares were lost in these fronts between 2004 and 2017, an area roughly the size of Morocco or six times the size of Tasmania. If this happened, the whole industry would need to clean up its act. Undertaking research and collecting data to support informed decisions and policies. On 11/02/22 the government officially listed the koala as Endangered in Queensland, NSW and the ACT. In the first analysis, NSW and Queensland were singled out for high rates of clearing, but the new report identifies further areas of concern in Victoria and Tasmania. Operation Artemis: Colombia's failed military operation to stop In NSW, the Berejiklian government weakened land-clearing rules in 2017 and habitat destruction has since increased. woodland, open, closed, or unknown): PNG [0.9 MB], PDF [3.6 MB]. This map shows the distribution of forests in northern Australia, by forest tenure: PNG [1.3 MB], PDF [0.8 MB]. Queensland has contributed half of Australia's deforestation since the '70s, primarily to make way for cattle ranching. State of the forests ABARES is in the process of updating indicators for SOFR with data up to or as at 2021, with the intention of publishing the updated indicators from mid to late 2023. Consequently, a total of 88.2 million hectares (67%) of Australias native forest is under some form of private management. Its primarily driven by agriculture (mostly for beef production), mining and urban development. Other questions have also been raised about the NGA land clearing data. A total of 108,700 hectares was cleared in South Australia. Our analysis of the Queensland government's own land clearing data for 2018-19 reveals that approximately 92,718 ha of likely or known koala habitat was destroyed across Queensland in one year alone between 2018 and 2019. View an interactive version of this map in ArcGIS Online map viewer. "As soon as the Newman Government came [into office in Queensland] and weakened the laws, in fact, in their own words they 'took the axe' to the vegetation laws, we saw a five-fold increase to just the mature forest being cleared in a five year period," he said. The threats manifest themselves in the form of deforestation and forest degradation. 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. ('Primary' refers to forests 30 years and older. "We know that the general public is outraged by this whenever they hear about it. State and territory governments have primary responsibility for forest management. Under commercial forestry activities, trees are regrown after harvesting. The ownership of a forest, especially native forest, has a major bearing on its management intent. 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.. The next biggest contributor to the data was "grazing modified pastures" at around 125,000 hectares. As well as land clearing, Western Australia's forests are under threat from climate change. Monitoring satellite imagery and recording suspicious clearing. Globally, commercial agriculture and tree plantations were identified as the biggest drivers of deforestation. There are questions over the methodology used in that system which we'll get to. Like Tasmania, native forest logging in Victoria has been responsible for clearing a relatively small area compared to agriculture. 10 Countries With the Highest Deforestation Rates in the World 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. This map shows the distribution of forests in northern Australia, by forest subtype: PNG [1.7 MB], PDF [1.0 MB]. Editor's note (12/10/2020): This story has been updated to clarify that agriculture has a bigger impact than native forest logging on land clearing in Victoria and Tasmania, and to define woody vegetation under the National Greenhouse Accounts guidelines.Editor's note (16/12/2020): This article has been edited to remove inaccurate references to deforestation; additional context has been included to clearly identify that agriculture has a much bigger impact than native forest logging on land clearing in Australia; and the definition of woody vegetation under the National Greenhouse Accounts guidelines has been corrected. (Supplied: Steven Nowakowski Panoscapes)Mr Davies heads up Rainforest 4: one of several conservation groups raising money to try . Australia's forests - DAFF - Agriculture Dr Taylor said eastern Australias forests have been declared a global biodiversity hotspot. For some perspective, the state cleared the equivalent of 1000 football fields per day in 2015-16. The total area of land cleared in Queensland was 2,446,600 hectares. Was a mine as big as Adani's approved during the election campaign? 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. Thanks! This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Australia's Commercial plantations are a major source of commercial wood products. However, the report says Forest fires are likely to increase due to longer and more extreme dry seasons as a result of climate change. We do business with you using online platforms. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. This map shows the distribution of the Melaleuca native forest type across Australia: PNG [2.0 MB], PDF [0.5 MB]. 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. Australia is the only developed nation on the list of the world's deforestation hotspots, according to a new report by WWF, previously known as the World Wildlife Fund. 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. Deforestation is Australias hidden emitterlike adding 10 million cars to our roads. In WWF's new report Deforestation fronts: Drivers and responses in a changing world, published today, the deforestation . Australia among the top deforesting nations in the world, WWF - ABC 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. The Australian, state and territory governments are all signatories to the 1992 National Forest Policy Statement (NFPS). We have also seen isolated cases of high-value Australian timber being illegally logged. 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Deforestationthe reduction or complete removal of native forest and bushlandhas escalated over the recent years to reach globally significant levels. The lion's share of land cleared in Western Australia was for agriculture, horticulture and forestry. The once abundant koala is rapidly vanishing from New South Wales and Queensland. But Dr Taylor said ultimately stronger laws are what drive down land clearing. It stuffs our soil and water, suffocates the Reef, kills wildlife, drains our carbon budgetand leaves our towns and suburbs hotter and less liveable. 2023 The Wilderness Society, The drone footage, filmed 10 to 11 November 2022, 250km southwest of Cairns, Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS), Tell big supermarkets and fast food chains to end deforestation. This map shows the distribution of the Rainforest native forest type across Australia: PNG [2.0 MB], PDF [0.5 MB]. This map shows the extent and distribution of Australia's forests by forest type: PNG [1.1 MB], PDF [3.6 MB]. View an interactive version of this map in ArcGIS Online map viewer here. by David Tarazona, Julin Parra De Moya 27 April 2023. We enhance our agricultural industries and trade, and manage the threat of biosecurity risks to Australia. . Everything you need to know about the deforestation crisis taking place across Australia. Lowering biosecurity risks to Australia, and assisting industry to accelerate growth towards a $100 billion agricultural sector by 2030. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the For instance, using the SLATs method the Queensland state government reported 356,000 and 392,000 hectares were cleared in Queensland in the periods 2016-17 (winter-to-winter) and 2017-18 respectively. Deforestation threatens much of Australia's extraordinary biodiversity and, if not redressed, will blight the environmental legacy we leave future generations, warn scientists including Richard Kingsford, Martine Maron and Brendan Wintle. Some forests on private land are publicly managed as conservation reserves. But critics say this does not represent what is happening in our forests from a wildlife conservation or carbon storage perspective. "Let's not look for the same old bulldoze-and-dig-it-up model of recovery. Over roughly the last 20 years, koalas numbers have declined by almost 50% across Queensland alone. Deforestation is Australia's hidden emitterlike adding 10 million cars to our roads. For species like the koala, we know the biggest problem is the destruction of their forest homes. Deforestation - National Geographic Society . Explore interactive charts and maps that summarize key statistics about forests in {area}. But currently, none of the big supermarkets and fast food chains can guarantee that the beef they source and sell is free of deforestation. With clearing on this scale, no wonder they were recently declared endangered in Queensland, NSW and the ACT. Australia is facing a deforestation crisis, with an area equivalent to MCG being destroyed every 86 seconds. Forest destruction was already bad enough for the region to be declared a global deforestation front, then the 2019-20 bushfires burned about 12.6 million hectares in eastern Australia, he said. Major retailers could, and as good corporate citizens should, chose to only buy deforestation-free beef. "Eighty-five per cent of it is just for beef cattle pasture or for sheep pasture," Dr Taylor said. But most of the deforestation is hidden from view.". 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. Regional Forestry Hubs boundaries (2022) is the spatial dataset of the boundaries for the Regional Forestry Hubs. The inaccuracies and lack of context in this article as originally published unduly focused on the role of native forestry in land-clearing. 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.

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