DEFORESTATION CHAMPS
Australia remains one of the world’s leading deforestation hotspots. Despite advanced infrastructure and commitments to international climate goals, large-scale land clearing continues at a rapid pace, particularly in Queensland and New South Wales. Each year, significant areas of remnant forest and woodland are removed. The main issue is the difference between net and gross clearing. While the government emphasises regrowth in arid rangelands to suggest stable forest cover, environmental scientists note that this does not offset the loss of high-value, carbon-dense old-growth forests along the coast.
Agriculture, particularly the beef industry, drives most of this land transformation. In northern Australia, about 90% of land clearing is used for cattle grazing, often through mechanical removal of native trees and the planting of exotic grasses to increase stocking rates. Mining for bauxite and iron ore, as well as ongoing urban expansion near major cities, further fragments remaining wilderness.
The ecological consequences of this clearing are profound and often irreversible. Australia currently holds one of the worst records of mammalian extinction globally, a crisis driven directly by habitat loss. When a forest is bulldozed, it’s not just the trees that disappear; the intricate web of life, from soil microbes and fungi to reptiles and marsupials, is destroyed. Iconic species such as the koala, which was officially listed as endangered across much of its range earlier this decade, face a “death by a thousand cuts” as their habitats are fragmented into smaller, isolated patches. These fragments are more susceptible to edge effects, in which forest borders become hotter, drier, and more prone to infestations by invasive weeds and predators such as feral cats.
Vegetation removal disrupts the hydrologic cycle and degrades soil health. In the Great Barrier Reef catchments, loss of tree cover causes significant topsoil erosion. During heavy rains, sediment containing agricultural chemicals washes into the ocean, smothering coral reefs and hindering their recovery from frequent bleaching events caused by rising sea temperatures.
Land clearing is a major source of Australia’s carbon emissions, though it is often reported separately from industrial sources. Clearing native vegetation releases stored carbon from wood and soil, frequently through burning. Clearing one hectare of mature, high-biomass forest can emit as much carbon dioxide as over a hundred hectares of young regrowth can absorb over many years. Preventing land clearing is therefore the most cost-effective strategy for achieving national net-zero targets.
In response, the federal government introduced major reforms in 2025 and 2026 to strengthen the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. These laws aim to establish a “Nature Positive” framework, requiring developers and farmers to prove their actions do not cause a net loss of biodiversity. While this marks a significant policy shift, enforcement remains challenging due to the continent’s size, allowing illegal clearing to go undetected for months. As Australia progresses through the late 2020s, the future of its ecosystems will depend on shifting from expansion to valuing standing forests as vital national infrastructure.
