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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

Australia World Leader in Deforestation

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.

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

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11/21/01

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

The loss of native forests in Australia is even worse than

previously thought. Fifty football fields of trees and bushland

are being lost every hour. Australia likes to condemn and

dispense advice on forest management to Papua New Guinea, the

Solomon Islands and Malaysia. Not excusing the poor forest

management practices in these countries, but perhaps Australia

should put its own house in order before telling others how to be

environmentally responsible. The ecological sustainability of

Australia's fragile environment is very much threatened.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: Australia fifth highest land clearer - report

Source: Copyright 2001 Reuters

Date: November 21, 2001

SYDNEY - Australia clears the equivalent of more than 50 football

fields of trees and bushland every hour, making it the world's

fifth highest landing clearing nation, according to a report

released yesterday by green groups.

Australia clears 687,000 hectares (1.6 million acres) of native

bushland a year, 22 percent more than the previous estimate, said

the Queensland Conservation Council.

Two thirds of the land cleared was virgin bush, with most of the

land clearing occuring in two states, New South Wales and

Queensland on Australia's east coast.

"This means that over 50 football fields of Australian native

trees, wildflowers and wildlife habitat are destroyed every hour,"

said the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The new land clearing figures are based on studies by the

Queensland Herbarium, the New South Wales Royal Botanic Gardens

and the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service.

In a joint statement green groups said the new studies were more

accurate as they assessed the loss of trees and understorey plants

like wildflowers and shrubs using satellite and aerial photographs

and field observations. Previous estimates were based only on the

loss of trees estimated by satellite images.

"Past estimates already rated Australia as the sixth highest land

clearing nation on Earth," said Barry Traill, land clearing

campaigner with the Wilderness Society.

"The new figures show that in fact we are the fifth worst land

clearer in the world. We've overtaken Mexico and are fast catching

up to Brazil, Indonesia, Zambia and Sudan," he said.

Green groups warned that the higher rate of land clearing

threatened to make Australia's major salinity problem worse.

Plant-killing salt is forecast to cover 17 million hectares (42

million acres) of Australia by 2050 from 5.7 million hectares now,

according to government figures.

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