A new petition is urging state and federal governments to rein in Australia's rampant land clearing, which worsens the risk of bushfires and threatens to undo the work of the Emissions Reduction Fund.
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Articles on land clearing
Displaying 1 - 20 of 34 articles
Koalas can cope with the stresses of city life provided we plan urban developments in ways that help meet their basic needs.
Queensland's new land-clearing laws are a huge missed opportunity.
Across large ares of Australia, rocky outcrops are being obliterated to open up more land for farming. But many of these "bush rocks" are refuges for fragile ecosystems.
Queensland's new draft land-clearing laws aim to put the brakes on years of environmental destruction. But the bill contains several loopholes that are likely to stymie progress.
Australia's federal environment laws are inadequate to halt Australia's alarming rates of land clearing and species loss. A more robust set of laws are urgently needed.
The failed attempt to reinstate land clearing regulations in Queensland has prompted 'panic clearing', pushing Australia into the global top-ten deforesters.
The outgoing Threatened Species Commissioner has downplayed the importance of land clearing as a threat to Australia's plants and animals. But it's the biggest threat, and magnifies the others too.
Zero-burning policy could hurt small-holder farmers. The ban on the use of fire for land clearing has raised the costs to prepare their land for planting and to keep it pest-free.
More than 50 million birds, mammals and reptiles are thought to be killed each year in New South Wales and Queensland by the removal of native vegetation, and planning laws are failing to protect them.
Legal vegetation 'thinning' is contributing to high rates of land clearing, potentially causing problems for threatened species and ecosystems.
You'd hope we wouldn't flatten the pyramids to build a highway. But that's exactly what's happening to the world's natural heritage sites.
Since 1992, an area of land two-thirds the size of Australia has been converted to human use.
Australia's Great Northern Savannas are the largest and most intact ecosystem of their kind on Earth. But they still face pressure from grazing, mining and agricultural expansion.
Here's another reason to stop land clearing: it's making Australia hotter and drier.
Climate change gets a lot of the spotlight when it comes to saving wildlife. But bigger threats remain.
Moves to tighten land-clearing laws in Queensland and New South Wales have been met with outrage from farmers. So how can we get regulation right?
The Banksia woodlands of the Swan Coastal Plain are home to thousands of species, many unique. But they are gradually being swallowed by Perth, one of the world's most sprawling cities.
Victoria's volcanic plains offer fertile ground for grasslands teeming with wildflowers. But that same fertility has also made the plains a tempting target for grazers and growers, and developers too.
Back and forth over land-clearing laws has left landowners confused and native forests vulnerable.
Top contributors
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Professor, The University of Queensland
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ARC Future Fellow and Professor of Environmental Management, The University of Queensland
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Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook University
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Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Futures, The University of Queensland
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Researcher, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland
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Professor, The University of Queensland
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Landscape Ecologist, The University of Queensland
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Professor in Biodiversity and Conservation, The University of Queensland
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Associate Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University
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Bob Pressey is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professor and Program Leader, Conservation Planning, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University
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Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University
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Professor, RMIT University
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Postdoctoral fellow, The University of Queensland
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Professor in ecology and environment, Griffith University
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Associate Professor, The University of Queensland
