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

Growing up in the Pacific, a big part of my life revolved around the ocean. I was being taught to be as comfortable in our beautiful pristine waters as I am on land even before I could walk. The ocean is the main source of income for a number of us and it is a big part of why our tourism industry blossoms. Everyone wants to get away from life in the city and escape to our beautiful clean beaches, but the unfortunate reality is that they might not be here for much longer.

In the last century, the sea level has been rising globally and the rate at which it is rising has increased to almost double in the last two decades. According to the National Ocean Service, sea levels are continuing to rise at a rate of about one eighth of an inch per year. That may not sound like a lot, but to the people of the Pacific, especially those in low lying areas, that amount is already changing our lives. For the people of Kiribati, whose island homes are only two meters or less above sea level, every inch counts.

Photo: Nananu-i-Ra

Pacific preservation and protection is a lot more than an article to read and then forget about. For the 11 million of us in the Pacific, this is about making sure our actions, and the actions of the world as a whole, don’t become the cause of our beautiful homes being destroyed. The two ways that we feel the effects of climate change the most are the cyclones that continue to get more severe and the rising sea level that is slowly taking over our shores. Our homes are being destroyed, with over 30,000 people left homeless in Fiji after Cyclone Winston. There is a lot more being lost than just a beautiful holiday destination. Climate change is destroying our homes and taking our lives. The Pacific is not just a picture online. It is our home and protecting is our responsibility.

The lives of the people in the Pacific are not a choice to be decided on in a board room thousands of miles away from our beautiful homes and people. We are the frontliners and we have our own voices. Eleven million people may not seem like a lot to other countries, but every single one of us has a story to tell.

We are watching our homes being blown away in massive storms and while we are people of the ocean who will do everything we can to protect it, we don’t want to see it taking over our land and our homes. We can’t just sit by waiting for the tide to come in; the time has come to speak up to the bigger countries around us who are ignoring our reality because they don’t want it to affect their income.

Each year, renewable energy becomes more and more affordable and with the new jobs it now offers, there is no reason why countries should not be on board with the switch to renewable energy. There is a reason the Paris Agreement was unanimous and we must uphold all it represents if we want to have a hope of keeping climate change to less than 2 Degrees Celsius. The Pacific has so much to offer and it needs to be protected – our lives, our home and our planet. It’s our responsibility.

Climate change has already warmed the world by more than a degree Celsius and the consequences for the Reef appear to be catastrophic. Reef scientist Professor Terry Hughes said he didn’t expect to see a bleaching event like this for another 25 years and unless we make an immediate and drastic reduction in carbon pollution the Reef will not recover.

Unless we as a community choose to keep fossil fuels in the ground the Reef will not recover. But there’s no need to panic. The Age of fossil fuels is over. We live in the Age of renewables. There’s never been a more exciting time to save the Reef.

The Age of fossil fuels is ending just in time to save the Reef.

Renewables have made fossil fuels redundant and last year world carbon pollution stopped growing.

The era of fossil fuels is ending.

The world’s largest economies the USA and China announced moratoriums on new coal mines in the wake of the Paris #COP21 Accords.

Thermal coal prices from Newcastle are running at under $US60 a tonne, less than half the $US135 a tonne earned five years ago.

Coal mines like the Glencore Tahmoor coal mine in New South Wales are closing.

Peabody is at risk of bankruptcy.

The reality is that since the end of the mining boom coal is a minor contributor to the Australian economy. The value of coal exports to the Australian economy plunged from nearly 4.5% of GDP to less than 2%. Since 2008-09 the value of coal exports has fallen by a third while the national economy has grown by over 60%.

For the Queensland State Government car registrations are a bigger revenue earner than coal.

Since 2012 nearly 20 000 jobs have been lost in the coal industry. McDonalds in Australia employs more people than coal.

More than 50,000 abandoned mines scar our landscape. The toxic legacy of mining in Australia means the public will likely pay the estimated $50 billion it will take to rehabilitate our poisoned  land and water.

We live in the Age of Renewables

Globally there is more than enough solar power to satisfy needs for electricity. Sunlight which reaches the earth’s surface is enough to provide 7900 times as much energy as we can currently use.

In Australia solar and wind resources are greater than coal, oil, gas and uranium combined. Australian renewable resources could power the whole world for ten years.

The renewable energy industry is growing rapidly. The industry now employs more than 8 million people worldwide, up 5 percent from last year. Nearly 3 million people work in the solar sector alone, an 11 percent jump from 2015.

Australians spent more than $8 billion on rooftop solar since 2007.

The fossil fuel era is over and while the world’s carbon pollution stopped, Australia’s accelerated.

The Australian Government are determinedly swimming in the opposite direction to the global current towards renewable energy.

As clean energy investment has grown around the world China (32%), Japan (12%), the US (8%), Germany (3%) and the UK (3%), in Australia, investments in large scale renewables dropped by 88%.

Investments in renewables in Australia have fallen because the Liberal-National Government have actively supported fossil fuels through massive subsidies and discouraged investment in renewables at the expense of the Great Barrier Reef and the jobs of the future. And the jobs of right now.

There has never been a more exciting time to save the Reef. This is a moon-shot moment.

We could make a just transition in a decade and save the Reef.

Greenpeace is campaigning for a future that will allow our forests to thrive – filled with unique wildlife and able to sustain local people and economies whilst cleaning the air of carbon: a future with no deforestation. This may be ambitious, but it is possible. In fact, because stopping forest destruction is one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to prevent catastrophic climate change, we think it’s essential. To protect these precious ecosystems, the international community, corporations, Indigenous communities and individuals will need to work together in an unprecedented, concerted effort. Greenpeace is campaigning to realise this vision in several ways:

Corporate action

If corporations have the ability to destroy the world’s forests, they also have the power to help save them. We investigate, expose and confront environmental abuse by corporations around the world, and ask our supporters to take action for the planet. As a result, many multinational corporations have changed their practices – but there is still a long way to go to protect the world’s forests.

Consumer power

The conversion of irreplaceable forests into consumer products like tissues, books, paper and ingredients food and toothpaste is one of the great environmental crimes of our time. But, in the battle to protect our forests, consumers have the power. Don’t believe us? Just ask Unilever, Nestle, McDonald’s and Kraft, all of whom changed their sourcing policies after our supporters piled on the pressure.

Political solutions

Greenpeace is campaigning for a meaningful, international mechanism to help end forest destruction globally known as REDD (reduced emissions from degradation and deforestation). If it is done well, REDD could benefit biodiversity, humanity, and the climate. Yet some governments and industries are lobbying hard to undermine REDD – or unfairly profit from it – and many forest communities are being left out of discussions that will directly affect their lives.

Putting ‘No Deforestation’ into practice

Tropical forests hold large stores of carbon, are packed full with important biodiversity, and are critical for millions of people from local communities who depend on forests for their livelihoods. The companies that have been converting tropical forests to agriculture or plantations, for commodities like palm oil or paper, have come under increasing pressure from their customers to prove that their operations and supply chains are not causing deforestation. Defining deforestation is very complex, as it has to factor in carbon and climate, biodiversity and social implications. However, the urgency for an answer increases every day as more of our irreplaceable forests are destroyed. Over the last three years, Greenpeace has been working with one of the world’s largest palm oil suppliers, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), and The Forest Trust, on a pioneering initiative on implementing no deforestation and forest conservation – via identifying and conserving High Carbon Stock (HCS) forest areas.

Forest communities

Greenpeace works with indigenous communities around the world at the front line of forest destruction – supporting the demarcation of traditional boundaries and eco-forestry initiatives, and offering a global platform through which these communities can address the rest of the world. Why? We believe that if these communities are able to keep control of their forests, they will protect their resources for the future, and the planet.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

Ecological and socially responsible forest management can, and is, being practised by some companies. This kind of forest management seeks to ensure that the forest ecosystem is not damaged, that only low volumes of trees are extracted, and that the impacts on plant and animal life are minimal. The FSC, an international, non-profit association, was created in 1993 so that corporate buyers and the public can identify products that come from responsibly managed forests.