Forests – Greenpeace Australia Pacific https://www.greenpeace.org.au Greenpeace Australia Pacific Thu, 09 May 2024 05:47:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.greenpeace.org.au/static/planet4-australiapacific-stateless/2018/05/913c0158-cropped-5b45d6f2-p4_favicon-32x32.png Forests – Greenpeace Australia Pacific https://www.greenpeace.org.au 32 32 Report: Deforestation Crisis on Their Watch https://www.greenpeace.org.au/greenpeace-reports/beef-industry-impact-on-australian-forests/ Thu, 09 May 2024 05:44:23 +0000 https://www.greenpeace.org.au/?p=17739

Summary

Australia is a global deforestation hotspot, driven primarily by the beef industry. About every two minutes, a large football field-sized area of forest and bushland is bulldozed, putting Australia alongside places like the Amazon, Congo and Borneo on the scale of destruction. This is killing tens of millions of native animals each year, including koalas, while harming the land, polluting rivers, making climate change worse and damaging the Great Barrier Reef.

Australia’s largest beef buyers – the retailing and processing companies – have the ability to fix this problem by ensuring their supply chains are conversion and deforestation-free (meaning no destruction of all natural ecosystems) by 2025. Doing so would demonstrate strong environmental leadership and align with major international corporate sustainability target-setting initiatives such as the Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi) and Science-Based Targets for Nature (SBTN). With the European Union implementing a tough new deforestation-free export and import law this year, this would also align with key international markets.

In this report we assess how the commitments and implementation efforts of ten of Australia’s largest beef buyers stack up against a conversion and deforestation-free target by 2025. All of the companies assessed failed, with none scoring above 50%. While a small handful of companies had some form of deforestation-free commitment, none clearly articulated that their policy covers important regenerated forest. In addition, no companies were able to provide clear evidence of implementing their commitments. Crucially, this is due to a lack of full tracking of supply chains down to the property level where deforestation is occurring. Given deforestation has been a persistent issue in Australian beef supply chains for decades, this reflects very poorly on the environmental credentials of these companies.

The beef industry must address the destruction of forests and natural ecosystems happening on their watch. There must be no hiding behind greenwashing, minimalist targets and watered-down definitions. Instead the industry could and should be a leader in positive environmental change. This centres on setting a target and a clear implementation plan of conversion and deforestation-free by 2025, using global best-practice definitions set out by the Accountability Framework Initiative (AFI).

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‘Fox guarding the henhouse’: Beef industry’s deforestation definition will not pass muster https://www.greenpeace.org.au/news/fox-guarding-the-henhouse-beef-industrys-deforestation-definition-will-not-pass-muster/ Wed, 08 May 2024 07:01:51 +0000 SYDNEY, Wednesday 8 May 2024 — In response to tomorrow’s expected release of Cattle Australia’s latest work attempting to develop an industry-led definition of deforestation, the following comments can be attributed to Head of Nature at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Glenn Walker:

“Australia has one of the world’s worst rates of deforestation, driven mostly by the beef industry. Every single day about 100,000 native animals are killed from this destruction as threatened species habitat, including for the iconic koala, is bulldozed at a rate of knots. 

“In just five years, 668,000 hectares of koala habitat was bulldozed by the beef industry for pasture — that’s 2,400 times the size of Sydney CBD. 

“It is simply not credible for the beef industry to cook up their own fantasy definition of deforestation and deny there is a problem — it’s like the fox guarding the henhouse.

“Any meaningful definition of deforestation must include threatened species habitat and regenerated forest — this is the widely accepted, global best practice approach. To ignore vital habitat for the endangered koala, for example, will not pass muster. Claims that the vast swathes of forest bulldozed for beef is for weed management are patently false. 

“Major global markets like the EU are moving rapidly towards responsibly-sourced beef — if the beef industry doesn’t clean up its act, it risks losing market and financial access. It’s deeply disappointing to see the Minister for Agriculture seemingly go against his own government’s goal of zero new species extinctions by railing against the EU’s critically important deforestation-free regulations.

“Any company in the beef supply chain, or financial institutions supporting the industry, should be very careful with any public claims they are deforestation-free based on deliberately weak definitions completely out of step with global best practice. 

“Market and financial regulators have made it clear that greenwashing is a priority area of concern and Greenpeace will be referring any suspect claims to these regulators. 

“The good news is that we already have the solutions — it’s only a relatively small number of operators doing most of the damage. The Australian beef industry can eliminate deforestation from the entire supply chain and be a leader in responsible beef production — this should be the focus of the industry, not continuing to deny a very serious problem.”

—ENDS—

High res images and footage of recent deforestation can be found here

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org

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It’s time to fight deforestation. https://www.greenpeace.org.au/article/australia-deforestation/ Mon, 29 Apr 2024 05:41:35 +0000 https://www.greenpeace.org.au/?p=17547 Australia has become a global deforestation hotspot but, together, we can turn things around. 

A hidden deforestation crisis is underway in Australia and our iconic wildlife is under threat. Australia is number one in the world for mammal extinction and number two in the world for biodiversity loss.

Queensland takes the trophy for the state with the highest rates of deforestation – bulldozing more than all the other states and territories combined1. But how did it get so bad?

A bulldozer is filmed destroying Australian forest

A bulldozer brutally rips down trees in an Australian forest.

Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Queensland’s longest serving Premier, famously developed a technique for bulldozing massive areas of forest and bushland, using a giant anchor chain connected between two dozers to rip the forest apart. Joh oversaw the destruction of millions of hectares of forest and woodland in the Brigalow Belt of Queensland, which is one of the country’s 15 national biodiversity hotspots2.

Throughout the nineties, the Australian environment movement fought for stronger laws to end the destruction of forests and woodlands. Deforestation rates started to decline before state Governments were urged by industry to loosen laws, and once again rates of deforestation began to climb. 

Today, much of the environmental destruction is going on unchecked by government or environmental bodies, so the scale of the problem is hidden from view and only exposed by expert research and investigation.

Satellite images expose deforestation that is hidden from the public view.

What’s the beef with deforestation?

Over 73% of deforestation is for the primary purpose of beef production3. Trees are bulldozed and then piled up and burnt or left to rot, invasive grasses are planted and cattle are brought in.

It’s really no wonder considering Australia is the 4th largest exporter of beef in the world. The majority of beef (60-70%) produced in Australia is for export. The remainder, however, ends up in steaks on the shelves of supermarkets like Woolworths and Coles and patties for burgers sold at fast food restaurants like McDonalds and Hungry Jacks.

Most beef is produced in the state of Queensland, so let’s take a closer look at beef driven deforestation in that state. In the five years from 2016-2021, over 2.2 million hectares of forest and bushland was bulldozed in Queensland alone4. Over 90% of the destruction each year was listed as being for pasture conversion.

While the vast majority of deforestation is for beef pasture, there are many other drivers – logging, mining, urban development and more recently the production of renewable energy.

Australia’s forests and bushland have been chopped, logged, pushed and dozed at scale since colonisation – mainly to create pasture for cattle and livestock. Today, just 50% of Australia’s original forests and bushland remain intact.5

The destruction of forests and bushland is having a huge impact on native animals. Every second a native animal is killed as a result of deforestation6 – in Queensland and New South Wales alone. That is tens of millions of animals and birds killed every year.

Much of the forests being destroyed are home to threatened species. In the 5 years from 2016-2021, 90% of deforestation was in habitat where threatened species are likely to make their homes.

Koalas are now endangered in NSW and QLD due to deforestation

Threatened species like the koala, northern quoll, northern hairy-nosed wombat and many more. Animals are now listed as endangered because they have lost their homes and their lives in a brutal and often bloody way.

Trees are the lungs of the planet – they clean our air and store massive amounts of carbon. When they are bulldozed, that carbon is released. So deforestation not only harms native animals, but it drives the climate crisis as well. 

With all of these dire facts it might be hard to see the how we can save our vulnerable forests, birds and animals. But we have a plan to turn the destruction around – a two-pronged campaign strategy. 

The first step in winning is to make the government step up and bring in strong nature protection laws that don’t let this destruction continue unchecked. This year the Australian government will face a huge test — a once-in-a-generation reform of our national nature laws.

Without strong laws that genuinely protect and restore nature, the destruction of wildlife and forests will continue and countless more native animals will face extinction.

You can send an email to your local MP right now, to tell them we need strong nature protection laws.

Next we need to get big corporates to clean up their act and, because the leading cause of deforestation is beef production, get it out of their beef supply chains.

We will be exposing the problem and calling on the biggest buyers of Australian beef – supermarkets and fast food chains – to clean up the deforestation in their supply chains.

Sign the forests petition and we will keep you up to date on the campaign – and how you can fight for the future of our forests.

  1. Ward, M. and Watson, J. 2023. Why Queensland is still ground zero for Australian deforestation. The Conversation. ↩
  2. DES. 2018. A Biodiversity Planning Assessment for the Brigalow Belt Bioregion: Expert Panel. Version 2.1. Brisbane: Department of Environment and Science, Queensland Government. ↩
  3. The Wilderness Society. 2019. Drivers of Deforestation and land clearing in Queensland. ↩
  4. Greenpeace, 2024. New Greenpeace research reveals shocking scale of deforestation crisis in Australia. ↩
  5. Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Little left to lose: deforestation and forest degradation in Australia since European colonization, Journal of Plant Ecology, Volume 5, Issue 1, March 2012, Pages 109–120, https://doi.org/10.1093/jpe/rtr038 ↩
  6. Finn Hugh C., Stephens Nahiid S. (2017) The invisible harm: land clearing is an issue of animal welfare. Wildlife Research 44, 377-391. ↩
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‘Like a pub without beer’: Govt’s new enviro protection agency must be backed by nature law overhaul https://www.greenpeace.org.au/news/govts-new-enviro-protection-agency-must-be-backed-by-nature-law-overhaul/ Tue, 16 Apr 2024 02:45:00 +0000 https://www.greenpeace.org.au/?p=17457 SYDNEY, Tuesday 16 April 2024 — Greenpeace Australia Pacific has called on the federal government to urgently back up the establishment of the new environmental protection agency, Environment Protection Australia (EPA), with the promised overhaul of Australia’s broken national nature law.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek today announced that the federal government will establish two new agencies – the EPA and Environmental Information Australia – as a matter of priority, but failed to give clear timelines on the bigger promise to deliver a new and vastly improved national nature law.

The federal government committed to doing so this term in its Nature Positive Plan.

Glenn Walker, Head of Nature at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said that in the face of a biodiversity and climate crisis, there was no time to lose in delivering a full and comprehensive package of reforms.

“Every single second, a native animal is killed from deforestation in Australia. Tens of thousands of hectares of koala habitat is bulldozed without environmental assessment each year. Weak laws and government inaction have made Australia a world leader in deforestation and biodiversity destruction. 

“The situation is urgent — there is simply no time to lose to save our forests and wildlife from the brink of extinction.

“We welcome the establishment of the new, properly resourced and independent EPA and in particular the Minister’s commitment to tackle rampant illegal deforestation. But the EPA will not have the teeth it needs until a strong national nature law also comes into place — forest destruction can also only be dealt with substantively with these legislative changes.

“It is also essential that the EPA is given powers to assess and reject large coal and gas projects where the climate impacts on nature are assessed as significant. Following the hottest year on record, it’s completely untenable that the existing nature law fails to allow this — another reason why it’s critical that the government gets on with the job of introducing the new nature law into parliament as soon as possible.

“What the government has announced today is a bit like a pub without beer — while the new institutions are welcome and important parts of the reform needed, the job is only finished when a strong and ambitious nature law is in place and environmental destruction is stopped.”

The announcement comes following confirmation today that the world is experiencing its fourth global coral bleaching event — the second in the last 10 years — with the Great Barrier Reef currently impacted by severe bleaching.

—ENDS—

High res images and footage of recent deforestation can be found here and here

Media contacts

Kimberley Bernard on 0407 581 404 or kimberley.bernard@greenpeace.org

Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org 

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‘Don’t bow to mining lobby’: Leading environment orgs urge swift action on national nature law reform https://www.greenpeace.org.au/news/leading-environment-orgs-urge-swift-action-on-national-nature-law-reform/ Wed, 10 Apr 2024 03:46:19 +0000 Australia’s largest environmental organisations have urged the federal government to drive forward ambitious reforms to the national nature law this term amidst reports of backlash from the mining industry.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific and the Australian Conservation Foundation have urged the Albanese government to forge ahead with ambitious reforms to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) following media reports that industry groups, particularly the mining lobby in Western Australia, are galvanising behind a campaign to ‘slow down’ the process and to carve up the package of reforms.

The federal government is currently undergoing a once-in-a-generation overhaul of the EPBC, which was designed over two decades ago. An independent review in 2020 concluded that the national nature law is not fit-for-purpose, outdated, and in need of fundamental reform to reverse the downward trajectory of environmental decline.

Glenn Walker, Head of Nature at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said that in the face of a climate and biodiversity crisis, industry pressure must not impede the rollout of these much-needed reforms.

“We’re deeply concerned by reports that the mining lobby is attempting to slow down the delivery of these critically important reforms to our national nature law.

“Australia is a world leader in mammal extinctions and the only OECD country on a global list of deforestation hotspots — we simply do not have time for more stalling tactics and hot air from the mining industry, who have a long history of blocking progress on climate and enviromental protection, and greenwashing their polluting operations.

“Establishing a new, strong national nature law is an exciting opportunity for the federal government to deliver on its election promise to protect our environment — we urge Minister Plibersek to stand firm and move forward with the ambitious reforms needed to protect our unique wildlife and places from rampant destruction.”  

Brendan Sydes, National Biodiversity Policy Adviser at the Australian Conservation Foundation, said further delays to EPBC reform would mean more destruction of irreplaceable wildlife habitat.

“It is more than three years since Professor Graeme Samuel delivered his comprehensive and scathing review of Australia’s environment law to the Morrison Government and nearly two years since the most recent State of the Environment report laid bare the dire state of nature in Australia.

“The Albanese government came to office in May 2022 with a commitment to reform this law. 

“Everyone agrees the existing environment law is broken. Nearly 8 million hectares of threatened species habitat in Australia has been bulldozed, logged and cleared since the law came into effect in 2000 and recent ACF investigations show this destruction is continuing.

Habitat destruction is a leading cause of extinction in Australia, directly contributing to the listing of 60% of Australia’s threatened species. 

“With her announcement that she intends to refuse approval of Walker Corporation’s wetland-wrecking Toondah Harbour marina, retail and apartment complex, Minister Plibersek has shown she is prepared to stand up for threatened species and natural places against those who seek to profit from their destruction.  

“She needs to stand up to the mining lobby and other interests that seek to delay and weaken urgently needed improvements to Australian environment law.”

—ENDS—

High res images and footage of recent deforestation can be found here and here

Media contacts

Kate O’Callaghan, Greenpeace Australia Pacific on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org

Josh Meadows, Australian Conservation Foundation on 0439 342 992 or josh.meadows@acf.org.au 

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Joint deforestation investigation exposes broken national environment law https://www.greenpeace.org.au/news/oint-deforestation-investigation-exposes-broken-national-environment-law/ Mon, 25 Mar 2024 01:07:00 +0000 https://www-prod.greenpeace.org.au/?p=17277 A joint investigation by three of Australia’s leading environmental organisations has uncovered multiple instances of large-scale deforestation which were not referred to the federal government for approval.

Deforestation for Cattle in Queensland, Australia. © Paul Hilton / Earth Tree Images
Flattened trees rotting, following a deforestation event for a cattle station in Queensland. Queensland has the highest rate of deforestation in Australia. Most deforestation occurs for the purpose of growing pasture for beef cattle. © Paul Hilton / Earth Tree Images

Since December 2023, The Wilderness Society, Greenpeace Australia Pacific and Queensland Conservation Council have referred six instances of potentially illegal deforestation to the federal government for assessment. In each case, habitat for listed threatened and endangered species, including the koala, northern quoll and greater glider, was bulldozed with no assessments undertaken, and no approvals granted.

The investigation exposes alarming loopholes in Australia’s national environment law, the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), which is currently undergoing a once-in-a-generation reform. The government has released elements of the draft legislation to key stakeholders, including the organisations listed above, but representatives involved in the closed-door sessions have voiced concerns that the reforms outlined so far lack the ambition needed to halt the accelerating decline of nature.

In Australia, an area of bushland and forest the size of the MCG is bulldozed every two minutes, killing and maiming millions of native animals every year. Australia is the world leader in mammal extinctions and a global deforestation hotspot. 

Gemma Plesman, Senior Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said that the breaches highlight that Australia’s national environment law is not fit-for-purpose and failing to stop the unregulated destruction of forests and bushland.

“Currently, the EPBC Act does little to address or regulate deforestation. On top of this, the powers that could be used to protect threatened species habitat are very rarely wielded due to the political reluctance to regulate so many bulldozing proposals at a farming property level. This means rampant bulldozing of threatened species habitat is falling through the cracks.

“Australia urgently needs strong, new environmental laws that will halt nature destruction and end the extinction crisis. Greenpeace strongly welcomes the long-overdue overhaul of our broken national nature laws but they need to address the deforestation crisis to succeed.”

Hannah Schuch, Queensland Campaign Manager at The Wilderness Society, said that the Albanese government is letting deforestation go unchecked and any reforms must rein in this environmental crisis.

“As Australia is now globally-recognised as a deforestation hotspot, monitoring the unlawful destruction of forests should not be left to environmental organisations to discover. 

“Australians expect the national nature law to actually protect the wildlife that we pride ourselves on, not to allow the ongoing destruction of vital habitat for threatened species. Stronger nature laws will give certainty to nature, communities and business. These changes are within Labor’s reach.”

Natalie Frost, Nature Campaigner, Queensland Conservation Council, said that Queensland is home to more forest and woodland than any other state, and that the Albanese government must properly enforce the current laws to protect these crucial ecosystems.

“Queensland has a world leading vegetation monitoring system, but sadly this investigation shows that nothing is being done to stop the bulldozing of hundreds of thousands of hectares each year, including forests, home to endangered koalas. 

“With a federal commitment of ‘no new extinctions’, the first step towards that would be to enforce our current laws to stop the bulldozers and protect threatened species like the Northern Quoll and Star Finch.”

—ENDS—

High res images and footage of deforestation can be found here

For interviews contact Kate O’Callaghan, Greenpeace Australia Pacific on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org

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New Greenpeace research reveals shocking scale of deforestation crisis in Australia https://www.greenpeace.org.au/news/new-greenpeace-research-reveals-shocking-scale-of-deforestation-crisis-in-australia/ Wed, 06 Mar 2024 00:22:00 +0000 https://www-prod.greenpeace.org.au/?p=17254 Koala in a Tree in Australia

New independent research commissioned by Greenpeace has revealed the shocking impact of the deforestation crisis in Australia, with huge swathes of federally-mapped koala and threatened species habitat bulldozed in Queensland.

The new research reveals how little is known about the destruction of native forests and bushland in Australia, with an area the size of the MCG bulldozed every two minutes. The majority of deforestation is occurring in Queensland, driven primarily by beef production.

The data reveals that 2.2 million hectares of forest and bushland was bulldozed in Queensland in just five years — 2.1 million hectares of which was federally-mapped threatened species habitat. Over 730,000 hectares of this was endangered koala habitat.

In Australia, over 90% of deforestation occurs without Federal environmental assessment due to a legal blindspot in our nature laws, the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), which this year faces once-in-a-generation reforms.

Gemma Plesman, senior campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said the unregulated destruction of forests and bushland for beef production can not be allowed to continue unchecked.

“The vast majority of deforestation in Australia is for beef production, much of which goes to large companies like McDonald’s, Woolworths and Coles — most consumers would be horrified to know that their steak dinner could be fuelling forest and wildlife destruction,” Plesman said.

“It doesn’t need to be this way. The majority of Australian beef is already deforestation-free but currently, companies like McDonald’s do not have adequate systems in place to rule out deforestation from their supply chain. 

“In the midst of a biodiversity crisis, companies purchasing beef have a responsibility to eliminate deforestation from their supply chain — a practice which is both unnecessary and out-of-step with global demand for responsibly sourced beef.

“This shocking data should be a wake-up call to companies who are effectively hiding the deforestation in their products from consumers. It’s time for them to lead the way with strong commitments to bulldozer-free beef.”

Meghan Halverson, co-founder Queensland Koala Crusaders and conservationist, said that unregulated deforestation is taking a deadly toll on native wildlife, killing and maiming millions of animals every year and placing threatened species like the koala at risk of extinction.

“Around 50 million animals are killed every year in Queensland and NSW alone by deforestation. As a wildlife carer, I see firsthand the horrific injuries inflicted on native animals like koalas and hairy-nosed wombats from deforestation, fires and the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation,” Halverson said.

“Australia holds the unenviable title of world leader in mammal extinctions. It is simply not good enough that we have one of the worst rates of deforestation in the world, alongside places like the Congo and Amazon Basin. 

“If the Labor government is to hold true to its promise of “No New Extinctions”, it must urgently introduce the strong laws needed to protect native animals from habitat destruction.”

—ENDS—

High res images and footage of deforestation can be found here

For interviews please contact Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org

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Fighting Against Deforestation and Illegal Logging https://www.greenpeace.org.au/article/fighting-against-deforestation-and-illegal-logging/ Sun, 22 May 2022 04:02:00 +0000 https://www-dev.greenpeace.org/australiapacific/?p=3975 Deforestation is a threat we need to tackle urgently. We have lost the majority of the world’s forests and it’s vital to save what’s left.

The world’s ancient forests are in crisis. Mainly because of deforestation, a staggering 80 percent have already been destroyed or degraded. It is crucial we fight against forest destruction as much of what remains is under threat from illegal logging or land clearing.

PT Megakarya Jaya Raya (PT MJR) Palm Oil Concession in Papua. © Ulet  Ifansasti / Greenpeace
Greenpeace investigation uncovers massive deforestation as Indonesian Government minister arrives in EU to defend palm oil industry. In the picture: landcover, forest clearance and plantation development in PT Megakarya Jaya Raya (PT MJR) palm oil concession. PT MJR is part of the Hayel Saeed Anam group which has a number of palm oil related interests including Pacific Inter-Link which controls HSA’s palm oil refining and trading interests. © Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace

Illegal logging is having a devastating impact on the world’s forests. Its effects include deforestation, the loss of biodiversity and fuelling climate change. This creates social conflict with Indigenous and local populations and leads to violence, crime and human rights abuses.

Ancient forests have evolved over thousands of years into unique and vital habitats for millions of plant and animal species. They are also home to millions of people who depend on them for their livelihoods and survival.

It is estimated that some 1.6 billion people worldwide depend on forests for their livelihood and 60 million Indigenous peoples depend on forests for their subsistence.

The Scale of Illegal Logging

Between August 2003 and 2004, the deforestation rate for the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical forest, was the second highest ever recorded. An area of 26,130 square kilometers – around the size of Belgium – was destroyed, most of it illegally.

Examples of Illegal Logging Rates in Timber Producing Countries

  • In Indonesia it is estimated that up to 90 percent of logging is illegal.
  • In the Brazilian Amazon it is estimated that 60-80 percent of logging is illegal.
  • In Cameroon 50 percent of logging between 1999-2004 is estimated to have been illegal.

Illegal logging is funding crime and distorting markets

Revenue from illegal logging activities has been used to fund civil wars, organised crime and money laundering, all of which threatens international security. Illegal logging undermines the trade in legal and well-managed timber by responsible companies by under cutting its price and making it less competitive.

The World Bank estimates that illegal logging costs timber producing countries between US$10-15 billion per year in lost revenue, accounting for over a tenth of the total timber trade world-wide, estimated to be more than US $150 billion a year. This lost revenue is desperately required for much needed public services such as building schools and hospitals.

“Expecting or asking one country to combat illegal logging while at the same time, receiving or importing illegal logs does not support the efforts to combat these forest crimes….In fact, allowing the import and trade of illegal timber products could be considered as an act to assist or even to conduct forest crime.”

Muhammed Prakosa, Indonesian Forest Minister, January 2003.

Causes of the Problem

Weak governance and corruption in timber producing countries and the failure of governments in consumer countries like the EU, US and Japan to ban the import of illegally and destructively logged timber, allows unscrupulous logging companies and timber traders worldwide to exploit ancient forests.

The worldwide increase in demand for timber products, regardless of their legality, is fuelling forest destruction. For example the European Union is a significant importer of timber from regions where illegal and destructive logging is rampant.

Finding Solutions

Political action: not enough to prevent forest destruction

Astonishingly the EU has no law to stop the import of illegal timber into Europe. An EU Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade, known as FLEGT recommends the development of laws, which could include banning illegal timber imports. Until now the European Commission is only promoting voluntary action, which is widely regarded as not enough to protect the forests or the people that depend on them for their livelihoods. This will not be enough to save the forests.

Alternatives to forest destruction include sourcing timber from well-managed forests and The Forest Stewardship Council™(FSC®).

Legality Verification Systems

The market for legality verification of wood products has grown. Numerous systems and services have been developed to check, license or certify timber as legal. The need to assess and monitor the credibility of these schemes is critical and Greenpeace has taken this task on. This assessment, based on desktop analysis and direct correspondence with the world’s primary verifiers, grades seven legality verification systems against criteria providing the essential minimum requirements to ensure credibility.

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Amidst the pandemic, koalas are quietly sold out for coal https://www.greenpeace.org.au/article/koalasnotcoal/ Sun, 05 Apr 2020 14:00:00 +0000 Over the weekend, the Federal Government quietly announced a significant change to the way that decisions around major coal and gas projects get made, with big implications for Australia’s threatened species and ecological communities, including our iconic koala.

image3

During the Covid-19 crisis, Greenpeace will be keeping an eye on ongoing corporate lobbying by fossil fuel companies that puts our climate and environment at risk while people are physically distancing. While most people have put public health first and are staying at home, corporate lobbying has not only continued, but fossil fuel companies appear to be exploiting the crisis to push an extreme anti-environment agenda. And koalas are in the firing line.

Koalas are adorable creatures – they sleep during the day and can travel vast distances at night, searching for leaves to forage on. However, many of their favourite feed trees are now in critically endangered ecosystems that have been put at risk of extinction by bulldozers, a drying climate and increasingly severe bushfires. The longer the distance between habitat areas, the further these furry creatures have to travel, and this can cause koalas to become exhausted or dehydrate. Recent research by WWF Australia has suggested that koala numbers in NSW have dropped by between a third and two-thirds over the past twenty years.

One of the koala’s favourite ecosystems is a critically endangered ecological community called White Box-Yellow Box-Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland, which has suffered heavy losses as coal mining companies have bulldozed some of the last parts of this ecosystem in recent years. In years gone by, mining used to involve sending people down a hole with a pick-axe, but as mining companies dig to deeper and more expensive coal seams, more destructive open cut coal mining, which involves mass bulldozing and open-air blasting with explosives, has become the new norm as companies seek to cut costs.

In 1999, the Howard Government introduced a federal law called the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act in recognition of the need to reverse the huge losses of Australia’s incredible biodiversity and the ongoing march of species and ecosystems towards extinction. The Act makes it illegal to do anything that is likely to have significant impacts on threatened species and ecosystems, with penalties of up to seven years’ jail. Predictably, the Act has always been unpopular with mining companies, who see biodiversity protection as a barrier to profit. When the law was first written, mining companies and developers managed to secure an escape clause that allows the Minister to allow destruction of threatened species habitat under exceptional conditions, subject to strict environmental conditions. Unfortunately, instead of being used sparingly, that clause has been used thousands of times to justify environmental damage. For over a decade, mining companies have been pushing for environmental decisions to be handed over to state governments, who depend more heavily on royalty revenue.

Over the weekend, while most people were nervously checking the spread of the coronavirus, the Federal government gave the coal industry part of what they wanted, by announcing a change to a bilateral agreement between the Federal and NSW Government about environmental assessment.

The most significant part of the announcement involved the most controversial part of the mine assessment process, which is a practice called offsetting.

In theory, if a mining company wants the government to agree to a mine that would lead to significant destruction of threatened habitat, they need to prove they have done everything possible to avoid, mitigate and offset the damage – in that order. Avoid means that if the company doesn’t “need” to destroy part of an ecosystem, they shouldn’t. Mitigate means that if they are causing damage, they should reduce their impact as far as possible. Offsetting is meant to be used as a last resort, but in practice, the use of offsetting is widespread. In 2014, a Senate inquiry unearthed huge scandals in biodiversity offsetting, including misleading claims by companies, phantom offsets, and even companies mining areas that were already set aside as offsetting by another project. The inquiry found that critically endangered ecological communities can’t sustain any further loss, and recommended that they should never be available for offsets. Unfortunately, the Federal government has still not implemented the recommendations of that inquiry.

So what is an offset anyway? The basic idea is that if a company is destroying threatened ecosystems, they need to buy replacement habitat for the animals that depend on it, like the koala. The aim is to encourage those animals to move to a new area, but the reason it’s a last resort option is that the habitat has to already exist. The principles of offsetting are that the replacement habitat has to be the same ecosystem, in as good as or better condition as the ecosystem under threat, immediately available, and the purchase of the offset needs to give it better protection than it otherwise would have had.

Under this weekend’s agreement, mining companies will now be able to use a system where instead of being required to look for and buy replacement habitat, they will be able to pay the NSW government to do the job for them. In practice, if the Government can’t immediately find replacement habitat, there won’t be legal consequences for mining companies who send in the bulldozers, as long as they’ve paid the fund. 

Unfortunately, nobody told the koalas that they might have to wait around a few years before the Government finds a new home and food source for them. In situations where an ecosystem has been so heavily cleared that it’s impossible to find enough replacement habitat, like with White Box-Yellow Box-Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland, which you’ll remember is a favourite koala home, the process can become absurd.

The mining industry doesn’t like the Federal environmental law, and we agree, but for a completely different reason. The fact is that the Federal law is just not strong enough to prevent extinction, and that’s why we need a new generation of environmental laws. While this weekend’s announcement was about environmental assessment, the fossil fuel industry wants the government to go further and also hand final decision-making power to the states. It’s critical that we don’t let that happen.

We’ll keep fighting for environmental laws that work, and watching out for threats to koalas, but it will take all of us together to demand the Government put our precious ecosystems ahead of corporate greed. Share this blog post to let your friends and family know what our government are trying to get away with in a time of crisis.

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