Australian Land Clearance Free for All a "National Disgrace"
11/8/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
Rainforest Information Centre of Australia--the first activist
organization in the world to take on the rainforest issue, whose web
site is hosted by Forests.org at http://forests.org/ric/ ; has this
to say about Australia's recent land clearance binge:
"Australia was one of only two over-developed countries to receive a
special deal at the Kyoto global warming conference, allowing it to
increase its greenhouse gas emissions on the basis that its economy
was particularly dependent on fossil fuels. Yet land clearance is
responsible for an estimated 15% of the country's total greenhouse
gas emissions. It has also been the major cause of Australia's
burgeoning soil salinity problem. Land clearance in central
Queensland, the subject of this article, is nothing new. It has
been proceeding unchecked for years."
With some 300,000 hectares of native vegetation having been cleared
this year in Queensland, even going so far as using floodlights to
log round the clock, the Australian government has lost all
credibility on the global environmental stage. Shame on you mate--
get your own house in order! This is indeed a national, and even a
global, disgrace.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Land clearance a "national disgrace"
Sixty million trees cleared in Qld panic
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 29, 1999
More than 60 million trees have been felled in Queensland this year,
prompting leading scientists to warn that Third World rates of land
clearing are not sustainable and will have serious consequences for
greenhouse emissions and salinity control.
An unprecedented spate of panic clearing by farmers anxious about
pending land protection measures is under way, with contractors in
the St George area of southern Queensland working around the clock
under floodlights at night.
And the Beattie Government has signalled the measures may not be in
place for several months, allowing clearing to continue at present
rates.
Government sources said more than 300,000 hectares of native
vegetation have been cleared this year. Botanists estimate a hectare
contains an average 200 trees.
Farmers claim the planned restrictions could force them off the land.
"We haven't got any choice but to clear more to make up for low world
commodity prices," said a grain farmer, Mr Tom Nicholas, as he
surveyed newly felled woodland on his central Queensland property.
Australia's leading authority on greenhouse emissions, Professor
Graham Farquhar, of the Australian National University, expressed
concern about the clearing, which accounts for about 15 per cent of
greenhouse emissions nationwide.
He warned that the clearing was being noted overseas and could damage
Australia's reputation. "In European countries, where of course they
did their clearing hundreds of years ago, this level of deforestation
is regarded with horror, up there with incest and rape."
With a report by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission last week
warning of sharp rises in salt loads in the basin's rivers, the
deputy chief of the CSIRO's Land and Water Division, Dr John
Williams, said the salinity crisis would be worsened by clearing in
Queensland.
"We will see significant salinity levels in the Murray-Darling's
Queensland tributaries. An already severe problem will be
exacerbated." Dr Williams said Queensland was set to experience the
same salinity problems that cost the southern States an estimated $1
billion a year. The head of environmental management at Perth's Edith
Cowan University, Professor Harry Recher, described the clearing as a
"national disgrace, bordering on the criminal".
It threatened endangered wildlife and biodiversity, he said. However,
Dr Bill Bowtell, a woodland ecologist with the Queensland Primary
Industries Department, blamed the Federal and State governments for
the panic clearing.
Canberra had warned of funding cuts if Queensland failed to act, and
the State has foreshadowed restrictions but not introduced them.
"By and large, farmers were doing the right thing," Dr Bowtell said.
"Then you had this grossly irresponsible behaviour by governments and
conservationists which has led to this."
The Queensland Environment Minister, Mr Rod Welford, denied that
government plans had prompted panic clearing. He said he hoped
ongoing discussions would lead to restrictions which satisfied all
parties, but legislation may not be ready until February.