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. 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. The forests of Australia are diverse and highly valued, and are among the country's most important natural resources. This change is needed throughout the whole supply chain, from producers through to retailers, such as supermarkets and fast food restaurants. 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. 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. And its not good news for nature. Throughout history and into modern times, forests have been razed to make space for agriculture and animal grazing, and to obtain wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction.. Deforestation has greatly altered landscapes around the world. Your feedback has been submitted. Getting a fix on this figure is tough. This map shows the distribution of the Callitris native forest type across Australia: PNG [1.9 MB], PDF [0.5 MB]. 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. This map shows the distribution of Australia's native forests by crown cover class (i.e. In 2015, WWF's Saving Forests at Risk analysis identified 11 global deforestation fronts including eastern Australia. The ownership of a forest, especially native forest, has a major bearing on its management intent. About half of Australia's Commercial plantations are exotic softwood (predominantly Pinus radiata), while the other half are hardwood (predominantly eucalypt species). Deforestation is Australia's hidden emitterlike adding 10 million cars to our roads. For industrial plantations, the ownership of the land can be different from the ownership of the trees, and management arrangements can be complex., Of the 132 million hectares of native forest in Australia, 47.2 million hectares (36%) are native forest on leasehold land, and 41.0 million hectares (31%) are native forest on land held under private freehold title. A DES spokesperson told the ABC that "SLATs applies a highly rigorous methodology". Everyone has a role in supporting our biosecurity system. That will not change until we see rates of destruction go down, he said. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. With the support of people like you, the Wilderness Society recently launched a billboard campaign highlighting deforestation rates across Queensland, and the harm this causes to wildlife. Australia remains the only developed nation on the list of global deforestation fronts. The threats manifest themselves in the form of deforestation and forest degradation. The Regional Forestry Hubs were created under the National Forest Industries Plan [PDF 3.1 MB . Thanks! WWF-Australia 2018, All rights reserved. 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. 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. 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! The NGA method is based on satellite imagery where 20 per cent canopy cover or greater is classified as forest. This continued destruction is devastating for the environment and wildlife. 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. Over roughly the last 20 years, koalas numbers have declined by almost 50% across Queensland alone. statistics, Australia's State of the Forests Report 2018, Australia's State of the Forests Report 2013, Australia's State of the Forests Report 2008, Australia's State of the Forests Report 2003, Australia's State of the Forests Report 1998, Mandates and drivers for Australia's State of the Forests Report, Benefits of producing Australia's State of the Forests Reports, National Forest Inventory Steering Committee, Forests, land and Australias Indigenous peoples, Australia's Indigenous land and forest estate, Forestry regional profiles - data visualisation, Australia's native forest types - data visualisation, Australia's forests and forestry glossary, Australia's native forest - data visualisation, Regional profiles for forestry - data visualisation. Investing in health and disease prevention is the best cure, Identifying potential risks of COVID-19 and modern slavery in supply chain, How smart approaches to decarbonisation can generate alpha. Like Tasmania, native forest logging in Victoria has been responsible for clearing a relatively small area compared to agriculture. Australia remains one of the world's 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. Major retailers could, and as good corporate citizens should, chose to only buy deforestation-free beef. Consequently, a total of 88.2 million hectares (67%) of Australias native forest is under some form of private management. Forest policy in Australia is developed and implemented at the national, state and territory levels. 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 . Australia is a global deforestation front, alongside Borneo, the Amazon and the Congo. If we want to protect our climate, and the ecosystems that make our lives possible, theres no role for deforestation in Australias future. While the majority of landholders are eager to embrace new ways to look after their land, scattered rogue operators are holding us back. Regional Forestry Hubs map graphic only PDF [0.6 MB], We aren't able to respond to your individual comments or questions. Monitoring satellite imagery and recording suspicious clearing. Globally, commercial agriculture and tree plantations were identified as the biggest drivers of deforestation. Deforestation is Australias hidden emitterlike adding 10 million cars to our roads. That makes our 1-kilometre wide strip of cleared land almost 7,000 kilometres long, roughly stretching from Perth to Cairns via Brisbane. ESG forms an integral part of our process when looking at resource companies within our investment universe. However, the report says Forest fires are likely to increase due to longer and more extreme dry seasons as a result of climate change. WWF is Australias most trusted conservation organisation. More than 88,000 hectares of primary forest was cleared in New South Wales. 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. Read our WA native vegetation report detailing 7 ways to protect WA's most valuable natural asset. State of the forests 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. Under commercial forestry activities, trees are regrown after harvesting. 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. Registered Charity Number: ACN 001 594 074 | NSW License Number: CFN 13143. In 2019, Premier Dan Andrews committed to ending native forest logging in the state by 2030, and in the wake of last season's devastating bushfires there have been calls to bring that end forward. 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]. But Dr Taylor said ultimately stronger laws are what drive down land clearing. Everything you need to know about the deforestation crisis taking place across Australia. It expands on a 2015 report by WWF which named 11 hotspots, with eastern Australia also appearing on that list. Australia is the only nation in the developed world to make the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) global list of deforestation hotspots. Your feedback has been submitted. 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. Culture is how an organisation thinks, acts, and interacts. . But in 2012, a peace deal was struck between loggers and protestors. The main driver of clearing in New South Wales is agriculture. They have an ancient historylet's make sure they have a living future. 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 the distribution of forests in northern Australia, by forest subtype: PNG [1.7 MB], PDF [1.0 MB]. An MCG-sized area of forest and bush is bulldozed every 86 seconds in Australia. Leasehold forest is forest on Crown land (land that belongs to a national, state or territory government) that is typically privately managed. Using satellite imagery of forest cover and deforestation events across Australia . The issue is that a mature forest can be cleared in one place, and an equivalent area of 2-metre saplings may have regrown in another. Publicly owned forests include nature conservation reserve, multiple-use public forest and other Crown land. "Let's not look for the same old bulldoze-and-dig-it-up model of recovery. 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). '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. But the Liberal state government came to power in 2014 on a promise to revive the Tasmanian forestry industry, and soon after their election, reclassified around 400,000 hectares of forest designated as "future reserve land" to "future potential production forest". 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. By incentivising them to rehabilitate bulldozed land, we can make our soils, wildlife and landscapes more resilient to climate change. 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 24 fronts identified in the report are: 10 West Africa Liberia/Ivory Coast/Ghana, 12 Central Africa Gabon/Cameroon/Republic of Congo. , Carbon emissions released by land clearing across Australia are equivalent to about a third of the total emissions released by all of the coal-fired power stations in the country. Your information is being handled in accordance with the. If this happened, the whole industry would need to clean up its act. 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. Learn more about deforestation in 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. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. The environment minister, Sussan Ley, declined to comment on WWFs new findings as she had not seen the report. Agriculture was the biggest driver of land clearing in Tasmania. 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. 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. View an interactive version of this map in ArcGIS Online map viewer. In 2015, WWFs Saving Forests at Risk analysis identified 11 global deforestation fronts including eastern Australia. 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. Undertaking research and collecting data to support informed decisions and policies. This threatens a tourism industry worth $6 billion to Australia. Our consumption, per person, out-strips that of people . 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. Communities need a real voice in environmental decision-making to have an effective say on the future of NSW forests. Other questions have also been raised about the NGA land clearing data. In New South Wales, 99% of koala habitat on private land is not protected from 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. The next biggest contributor to the data was "grazing modified pastures" at around 125,000 hectares. Deforestation puts human health and the health of our planet at risk. Calling on big business to source and sell products free from deforestation. Mangroves on the move. , Only 50% of Australia's forests and bushlands remain intact compared to pre-European arrival. To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Only when an area drops below that 20 per cent threshold is it registered as forest loss. Click here to access all of the maps from Australia's State of the Forests Report 2018. Sadly, these forests are under threat.
