September. October 83L
ESS THAN HALF OF Australia’s
remaining native forests are on
government-owned land and
the concept of legislation to control
vegetation clearing on private
properties can be unpopular with
owners. Nevertheless, laws to control
clearing have been introduced since
the late 20th century because, as is
now well known, natural vegetation
has ecological functions that extend
well beyond private boundary fences.
Most land clearing in Australia is
covered by state laws. In Queensland,
it’s controlled under the Vegetation
Management Act, introduced in 1999
and progressively tightened during
the next decade. But in 2012 the
newly elected Liberal-National state
government began winding back
regulations in the Act. It cleared the
way for bulldozers to take out large
tracts of forests and woodlands that
weren’t protected in national parks or
other forms of reserve in the state.
As a result, tree clearing rose in
Queensland by 73 per cent in
2012–13 from the previous year and
“by a further 11 per cent from
2012–13 to 2013–14”, said the
Australia State of the Environment
2016 report.
Queensland’s annual Statewide
Landcover and Trees Study shows the
destruction continued in 2015–16
when “the total statewide woody
vegetation clearing rate was
3950sq.km/year...a 33 per cent
increase from the 2014–15 [rate]”.Clearing slowed slightly the
following year but then in 2017–18
climbed again to 3920sq.km/year,
close to the 2015–16 rate. About a
third of land affected is what’s known
as “remnant vegetation” – virgin bush,
never before cleared.
There has, however, been some
recent good news in Queensland.
In 2015 the newly elected state
Labor government foreshadowed
a tightening of the Vegetation
Management Act and in May last
year eventually succeeded in
restoring many of the regulations
controlling tree clearing that had
been removed by the previous
government. Scientists are now
waiting for confirmation from
satellite imagery to show, they hope,
that clearing in Queensland has now
dropped to a more acceptable rate.
In NSW, recent legislative changes
have been responsible too for a level
of clearing that has also set alarm
bells ringing with ecologists. In 2017
the NSW state Liberal government
began a series of “reforms” that led
to the repealing of the Native
Vegetation Act 2003, Threatened
Species Conservation Act 1995,
Nature Conservation Trust Act 2001,
and parts of the National Parks and
Wildlife Act 1974. It introduced the
Biodiversity Conservation Act 2017
and made amendments to the Local
Land Services Act 2013.
In the wake of these changes the
Nature Conservation Council (NCC)and WWF compared satellite
imagery of the Collarenebri and
Moree area in northern NSW from
2016, 2017 and 2018 and found the
clearing of forest and woodland
“almost tripled in one year following
the repeal of the NSW Native
Vegetation Act”.
Following the claim, the office
of the NSW Auditor-General
investigated and released a report in
June on the impact of the legislative
changes. It was damning: “The
clearing of native vegetation on rural
land is not effectively regulated and
managed because the processes in
place to support the regulatory
framework are weak. There is no
evidence-based assurance that
clearing of native vegetation is being
carried out in accordance with
approvals. Responses to incidents of
unlawful clearing are slow, with few
tangible outcomes. Enforcement
action is rarely taken against
landholders who unlawfully clear
native vegetation.”
It found the clearing of native
vegetation on rural land had more
than doubled from 2013–14
to 2016–17 and so too did
the extent of unexplained
clearing of woody
vegetation.Legislation protecting Australia’s forests comes and goes with changing governments.
Fo r e s t c l e a r i n g : the legal landscape
Deforestation in NSW due to agriculture
(hectares/year)
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5000
0
2010
20112011
20122012
20132013
20142014
20152015
20162016
20172017
2018Research suggests
agricultural land can suff er
many negative eff ects
following the removal of
large tracts of trees.