Land clearing in Queensland triples after policy ping pong

Recent increases in land clearing threaten Queenslands biodiversity. Photo: Bill Laurance

In 2013, a group of 26 senior scientists in Queensland (including ourselves) expressed serious concern that proposed changes to vegetation protection laws would mean a return to large-scale land clearing. The loss of these protections followed a Ministerial announcement in early 2012 that investigations into and prosecutions of illegal clearing would be halted.

Our statement of concern pointed out that tens of thousands of hectares of Queensland's woodland and forests were being lost every year, even before the vegetation protections were wound back. Just two years later, it appears we must now measure the annual losses in hundreds of thousands of hectares.

Last month, early figures were reported suggesting that 275,000 hectares were cleared from Queensland in the last financial year a tripling of land clearing rates since 2010.

Loss of koala habitat increases their vulnerability to other threats, such as cars. Photo: Graham van der Wielen

Land clearing is the main cause of biodiversity loss. It also exacerbates erosion and salinity, reduces water quality, worsens the impacts of drought, and contributes significantly to carbon emissions. Indeed, vegetation protection laws enabled Australia to meet its Kyoto Protocol target for emissions reductions.

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Australia already has alarmingly high rates of land clearing. And Queensland is responsible for more land clearing each year than any other state. So, the re-acceleration of land clearing in Queensland puts the state on the world stage and not in a good way.

How did we get to a situation where land clearing rates in a country like Australiawealthy, developed and once a global conservation leaderare increasing, rather than declining? Regulation and enforcement play an important role.

Deforestation-related legislation in Queensland started with an amendment to the Land Act in 1994. Over the next 18 years, governments across the political spectrum progressively strengthened protection of native vegetation.

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Land clearing in Queensland triples after policy ping pong