Australia's Massive Tree Felling

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives

2/23/00

OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE

Australia, a supposed leader in good environmental governance, has

one of the highest forest clearance rates in the World, and the

highest of developed countries. This despite the relatively small

amounts of forest cover existing. Over one million hectares (about

2.4 million acres) have been cleared in the last three years. I've

said it before, and I'll say it again, shame on you Australia. Your

poor land management damages your, and the World's, future. Please

get your act together for the sake of us all.

g.b.

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Title: Australia criticised for massive tree felling

Source: Reuters

Date: February 22, 2000

SYDNEY - Australia is destroying trees faster than any other

developed nation and has cleared more than one million hectares (2.5

million acres) of trees in three years.

The Australian Conservation Foundation said on Monday that Australia,

one of the world's driest nations and where rising salinity threatens

its agricultural belt, had cleared 529,000 hectares (1.3 million

acres) in 1999.

Australia ranked as the world's fifth biggest land-clearing nation,

trailing only Brazil, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo

and Bolivia in destroying trees, it said.

It said that unless Australia acted to stop the rate of land

clearance it faced major environmental damage which could cost the

nation A$1.0 billion (US$627 million) a year in repairs.

"Salinity or salt poisoning is forecast to cost this country A$1.0

billion a year in road repairs, loss of farmland, damage to

buildings, sports grounds, rusting pipes and so on," said Don Henry,

executive director of the foundation.

"These trees are capital investment against massive salinity repair

bills," said Henry.

Large areas have already been lost to agriculture as salt is brought

to the surface by the rising water table. The felling of native

trees, which require a lot of water, is blamed for the rising water

table.

The foundation said its latest data on land clearing showed a 30

percent rise from the last national figures in 1996-97.

"We have never been in the top five (land clearing nations) before.

We are the worst in the developed world. It's the biggest disaster as

a nation we will have to face," Henry said.

GOVERNMENT CONSERVATION PROGRAMME CRITICISED

The foundation criticised the Australian government's "bushcare"

programme which aims to protect and plant native trees, saying for

every one tree saved 10 were destroyed.

"Volunteer planting just can't keep up with the bulldozers - over one

million hectares has been cleared in the last three years," Henry

said.

Farmers in Australia's tropical state of Queensland, the nation's

second largest state, are bulldozing huge tracts of land ahead of new

land clearing laws.

Under the planned laws farmers must leave 30 percent of their land

under native vegetation. The foundation said Queensland accounted for

about 80 percent of Australia's land clearance.

But before the Queensland state government passes its land clearance

laws it is seeking compensation for farmers from the national

government, which has so far refused to pay.

The foundation said Australia could save 30 times more trees per

dollar if the national government backed the Queensland laws. "It

will take only A$103 million of federal money to save 4.7 million

hectares of trees," said Henry, adding the Australian government

still had A$235 million in its "bushcare" programme.

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