{"id":240809,"date":"2025-10-25T23:07:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T23:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/240809\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T23:07:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T23:07:26","slug":"queenslands-forests-are-still-being-bulldozed-and-new-parks-alone-wont-save-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/240809\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland\u2019s forests are still being bulldozed \u2014 and new parks alone won\u2019t save them"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Queensland government celebrated the creation of new national parks<\/a> this year, with Premier David Crisafulli saying it is time to \u201cget serious\u201d and be \u201cambitious\u201d in protecting nature. <\/p>\n

But this claim doesn\u2019t stand up to scrutiny. Despite decades of conservation promises, Queensland remains a globally significant hotspot for destroying forests and native vegetation<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Our new study<\/a> finds Queensland has lost at least 21% of its original woody vegetation since European colonisation. One-fifth of that loss has happened since 2000, even as the area of land being protected in state or national parks more than doubled.<\/p>\n

By 2018, nearly two-thirds of subregions (areas that have similar patterns of climate, geology, vegetation and wildlife) still had less than 10% of their woody vegetation protected. Half were considered at \u201chigh\u201d or \u201cvery high\u201d risk of further loss.<\/p>\n

Despite the creation of new national parks in some areas, bulldozers have kept working across vast parts of the state. Threatened animals, plants and precious landscapes are hanging on by a thread.<\/p>\n

\"Broken<\/a><\/p>\n

Cleared native woodland in the Brigalow Belt, in central Queensland.
\n Auscape\/Getty<\/a><\/p>\n

Parks in the wrong places<\/p>\n

Our analysis compared the loss of forests with the growth of protected areas across all Queensland regions with significant woody vegetation cover, using government data<\/a> from 2000 to 2018. <\/p>\n

This conservation \u201cbalance sheet\u201d approach shows not only where protection is growing, but whether it\u2019s keeping pace with ongoing clearing.<\/p>\n

We found a dangerous imbalance: for the 20% of vegetation cleared, only about 10% has been protected. And this mismatch was more stark when we looked at different parts of the state.<\/p>\n

Most of Queensland\u2019s newly protected areas were in subregions within areas such as Cape York (northernmost point of mainland Australia) and the wet tropics (northeast coast), which already had the highest protection and not under land clearing pressure.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, areas that have historically been heavily cleared kept losing vegetation at some of the fastest rates in the country, with very little new protection added. <\/p>\n

These included the Brigalow Belt \u2013 a wide band of acacia-wooded grassland between the coast and the semi-arid interior \u2013 the New England tablelands in the south of the state, and parts of the Mulga Lands in the south-west.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Protected areas in Queensland.
\n Supplied, CC BY<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Land clearing in Queensland.
\n Supplied, CC BY<\/a><\/p>\n

The illusion of progress<\/p>\n

Governments often report the growth of protected areas as evidence of progress toward global targets, such as protecting 30% of land by 2030 under the Kunming\u2013Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But focusing only on the creation of new parks paints a very misleading picture. If the bulldozing in Queensland continues at current rates, the net outcome for nature is negative, even when more parks are created. <\/p>\n

We identified regions of Queensland that are ecological crisis zones and need targeted protection now.<\/p>\n

The Brigalow Belt \u2013 home to species such as the northern hairy-nosed wombat, bridled nail-tail wallaby, golden-tailed gecko and Brigalow scaly-foot legless lizard \u2013 has lost almost half of its original woodland vegetation. <\/p>\n

And areas across heavily-populated southeast Queensland continue to be cleared for grazing and infrastructure. These are the landscapes most in need of urgent intervention \u2014 not just remote places that look good on international scorecards.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The critically endangered bridled nail-tail wallaby is found in areas of Queensland that are being cleared for farming.
\n Timbawden\/flickr<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/p>\n

Tougher protection<\/p>\n

Stricter limits or moratoriums on clearing in fragile environments could ensure their protection. This will only happen with tougher compliance. <\/p>\n

And expanding protection to capture depleted environments, rather than just photogenic or politically-palatable ones, is another way both state and federal governments can act.<\/p>\n

Our research also shows an urgent need for a bold restoration agenda. Many of Queensland\u2019s ecosystems are in a perilous state. Incentives and funding are needed for both protecting and restoring habitats where losses are already severe.<\/p>\n

From accounting to action<\/p>\n

Signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity<\/a>, which include Australia, have agreed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss this decade. But as Queensland\u2019s example shows, success depends not just on how much land is protected but on how effectively we prevent nature from being destroyed.<\/p>\n

Queensland\u2019s nature protection strategy must move beyond counting hectares of parks. Instead, it should focus on a four tier approach: stopping the destruction of native vegetation, restoring degraded land in areas that provide a biodiversity benefit, ensuring protection targets important areas for biodiversity<\/a>, and an accounting system that is transparent and captures both losses and gains.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, we can only expect more of the same: a small jump in the number of protected areas in politically palatable locations and far less protection for the animals and plants that looking down the barrel of extinction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Queensland government celebrated the creation of new national parks this year, with Premier David Crisafulli saying it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-240809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}