Australian Geographic - 09.2019 - 10.2019

September. October 81

1420

VERTEBRATE SPECIES

THREATENED

100,000sq.km

700,000sq.km

PUBLIC

of Australia’s

native forests

survive in patches

of less than 1000sq.km.

32%

16,836^2486

NATIVE PLANT

SPECIES

NATIVE

VERTEBRATE SPECIES

Forest biodiversity

Forest t ypes in Australia

Native forest ownership

5 %

MELALEUCA

3 %

RAINFOREST

10 %

other native forests

including callitris,

casuarina, mangrove

8 %

ACACIA

74 %

EUCALYPTUS

Defi nition: A forest is “an area dominated...by

trees having usually a single stem and a mature or

potentially mature stand height exceeding

2 metres...[and includes] areas of trees that are

sometimes described as woodlands.”

FACT

Australia’s forests

occur mainly where

average rainfall

is above

500mm/year.

220,000sq.km

CONSERVATION

880,000sq.km

PRIVATE

of Australia’s

forests and

woodlands cleared since

European colonisation.

44%

The leading threat to forest-

dwelling native animals is forest

loss from clearing for agriculture,

urban and industrial development.

area of forest over

which Aboriginal people

and communities have

ownership, management

or special rights of access.

About 69% of this forest

area is in Queensland and

the Northern Territory.

Aboriginal estate

INFOGRAPHIC BY MIKE ELLOTT AND JASMINE FLETCHER. SOURCE:

AUSTRALIA’S STATE OF THE FORESTS REPORT 2018