Australian Land Clearance Free for All a "National Disgrace"

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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11/8/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

Rainforest Information Centre of Australia--the first activist

organization in the world to take on the rainforest issue, whose web

site is hosted by Forests.org at http://forests.org/ric/ ; has this

to say about Australia's recent land clearance binge:

"Australia was one of only two over-developed countries to receive a

special deal at the Kyoto global warming conference, allowing it to

increase its greenhouse gas emissions on the basis that its economy

was particularly dependent on fossil fuels. Yet land clearance is

responsible for an estimated 15% of the country's total greenhouse

gas emissions. It has also been the major cause of Australia's

burgeoning soil salinity problem. Land clearance in central

Queensland, the subject of this article, is nothing new. It has

been proceeding unchecked for years."

With some 300,000 hectares of native vegetation having been cleared

this year in Queensland, even going so far as using floodlights to

log round the clock, the Australian government has lost all

credibility on the global environmental stage. Shame on you mate--

get your own house in order! This is indeed a national, and even a

global, disgrace.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: Land clearance a "national disgrace"

Sixty million trees cleared in Qld panic

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Date: October 29, 1999

More than 60 million trees have been felled in Queensland this year,

prompting leading scientists to warn that Third World rates of land

clearing are not sustainable and will have serious consequences for

greenhouse emissions and salinity control.

An unprecedented spate of panic clearing by farmers anxious about

pending land protection measures is under way, with contractors in

the St George area of southern Queensland working around the clock

under floodlights at night.

And the Beattie Government has signalled the measures may not be in

place for several months, allowing clearing to continue at present

rates.

Government sources said more than 300,000 hectares of native

vegetation have been cleared this year. Botanists estimate a hectare

contains an average 200 trees.

Farmers claim the planned restrictions could force them off the land.

"We haven't got any choice but to clear more to make up for low world

commodity prices," said a grain farmer, Mr Tom Nicholas, as he

surveyed newly felled woodland on his central Queensland property.

Australia's leading authority on greenhouse emissions, Professor

Graham Farquhar, of the Australian National University, expressed

concern about the clearing, which accounts for about 15 per cent of

greenhouse emissions nationwide.

He warned that the clearing was being noted overseas and could damage

Australia's reputation. "In European countries, where of course they

did their clearing hundreds of years ago, this level of deforestation

is regarded with horror, up there with incest and rape."

With a report by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission last week

warning of sharp rises in salt loads in the basin's rivers, the

deputy chief of the CSIRO's Land and Water Division, Dr John

Williams, said the salinity crisis would be worsened by clearing in

Queensland.

"We will see significant salinity levels in the Murray-Darling's

Queensland tributaries. An already severe problem will be

exacerbated." Dr Williams said Queensland was set to experience the

same salinity problems that cost the southern States an estimated $1

billion a year. The head of environmental management at Perth's Edith

Cowan University, Professor Harry Recher, described the clearing as a

"national disgrace, bordering on the criminal".

It threatened endangered wildlife and biodiversity, he said. However,

Dr Bill Bowtell, a woodland ecologist with the Queensland Primary

Industries Department, blamed the Federal and State governments for

the panic clearing.

Canberra had warned of funding cuts if Queensland failed to act, and

the State has foreshadowed restrictions but not introduced them.

"By and large, farmers were doing the right thing," Dr Bowtell said.

"Then you had this grossly irresponsible behaviour by governments and

conservationists which has led to this."

The Queensland Environment Minister, Mr Rod Welford, denied that

government plans had prompted panic clearing. He said he hoped

ongoing discussions would lead to restrictions which satisfied all

parties, but legislation may not be ready until February.

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