Alarm bells over land clearing in Queensland, NSW after landmark ‘citizen’s’ report
As activists shed light on Labour’s environmental reforms, a groundbreaking citizen scientist study has revealed thousands of hectares of forests potentially illegally bulldozed in Queensland and NSW.
Preliminary findings from the Australian Conservation Foundation have reported several cases of deforestation in south-east Queensland and western NSW, including thousands of hectares of habitat critical for koalas and vulnerable pink cockatoos.
ACF Head of Investigations Annica Schoo said the inquiry was only “superficial” and came at a critical time, just over six months since Labor passed sweeping reforms to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act with support from the Greens.
“Our citizen scientists and researchers are working hard to uncover potentially illegal bulldozing across the country, and we are confident we have helped stop active high-risk clearing in several locations,” he said.
“As the new national environmental laws are implemented, the Albanian government must ensure that the new National Environmental Protection Agency takes on the task of ensuring compliance with the laws.”
Neither landowner is charged with any crime.
More than 1,600 citizen scientists from 39 countries participated in the research.
In total, almost 1.1 million hectares of land were surveyed; this was approximately 1.6 times the size of Tasmania.
In one case at Undullah on the east Gold Coast, nearly 700 hectares of koala habitat were allegedly bulldozed. ACF said it reported the incident to the Federal Agency for Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water.
“So far we have identified four Queensland clearing incidents related to housing developments that may have impacted koala habitat, apparently without following appropriate assessments,” Ms Schoo said.
Another case reported by the ACF involved the clearing of approximately 5000 Ha of potential pink cockatoo habitat at Byrock, south-east of Bourke in Western NSW.
According to the agency’s claim, koala habitat may have been cleared elsewhere in the north of the state.
ACF said a total of 22 cases have been reported to state or federal departments so far.
State and federal departments were contacted for comment.
A spokesperson for the federal DCCEEW said in a statement that it was aware of allegations of land clearing “including potential impacts on threatened species” at Undullah in Queensland and Niangala and Byrock in NSW.
“All three matters have been referred to the ministry and are at different stages of evaluation,” the spokesman said.
The Albanian government and federal Environment Minister Murray Watt heralded last year’s reforms as a turning point in green regulation; These reforms not only encourage new security measures but also make it easier to grant major project approvals.
But the basic measure has not yet been tested.
The National Environmental Protection Agency is expected to become operational on July 1.
Consultations are also ongoing on National Environmental Standards, which will, for the first time, set clear criteria for the environmental consequences that must be met when a project is assessed under national environmental law.
Meanwhile, the NSW government last year announced the long-awaited boundaries of the Great Koala National Park on the state’s Mid North Coast; this included a moratorium on native forest logging along with future park boundaries.
