An investigation found that with the support of the new post-Brexit free trade agreement signed this summer, British consumers may consume Australian beef related to deforestation.
Satellite analysis determined that the area of deforestation in the past three years was more than twice the area of Manhattan on the entire farm in Queensland. biggest Australia’s beef producing state.
Deforestation includes habitats for threatened species such as koalas, flying foxes, quolls, and several endangered species of birds and frogs.
“When bulldozers destroyed the habitat, millions of native animals, including Australia’s iconic koala, were killed or made homeless,” Gemma Plesman said. Queensland Campaign manager of the Wilderness Society, he conducted satellite analysis with Unearthed, the investigative agency of Greenpeace. .
Australia is the only developed country on the WWF list Global Deforestation HotspotBetween 2004 and 2017, approximately 3% of the forest area in eastern Australia, including Queensland, disappeared.
According to the terms of the trade agreement signed this year, Australian beef producers will enter the UK market duty-free.but Activists argue Beef is the number one driver of the country’s deforestation crisis, especially in Queensland.
Launched by the Queensland Government New law Designed to curb deforestation in 2018, but analysis shows that loopholes are allowing clean-up efforts to continue.
The analysis found that 57 properties have more than 13,500 hectares (33,359 acres) of deforestation, and more than half (56%) of the deforested area of 54 beef production areas are classified as habitats for “probably present” threatened species.
The loopholes discovered by Unearthed exempted large hectares of forests that should be classified as “high-value regeneration” even if they are more than 15 years old.
More than two-thirds of the deforestation identified in the analysis is forest or woodland. Although they have been more than 15 years old and have returned to maturity, they are still not subject to all clearance restrictions.
Regenerated forests are often important habitats for threatened species. A Queensland civil servant working on the subject stated on condition of anonymity that they “can represent a large part of the remaining range of endangered ecosystems.”
Dr. April Reside, a lecturer in wildlife science at the University of Queensland, said that the degree of deforestation identified in the study was “very large”, adding that deforestation has the potential to fragment and degrade species’ habitats, exposing them to invasive species.
Among the 82 species that have lost their habitats, the southern black-throated finch is an endangered bird that has been found to be losing 364 hectares of habitat.
Reside said: “This is definitely something to be concerned about… They have lost 88% of their original range. So they have only a small part of their habitat left, and what they leave behind has been highly degraded and has nothing to do with the protection of finches. It’s still being cleaned up.”
“There are some ways to grow beef without destroying the environment. Professor Brendan Winter, a conservation ecologist at the University of Melbourne, said: “Large-scale land clearing is just laziness… You don’t have to clear your habitat to get food. Land and extinct species. “
The Environmental Act, which became law last month, only addresses the issue of deforestation in the supply chain that is illegal under local law.
“No one wants to be responsible for deforestation,” said Dustin Benton, the policy director of the Think Tank Green Alliance. “If the rules can’t guarantee this, or we can’t even get additional clauses in the Anglo-Australia trade agreement, then they simply won’t work.”
The National Farmers’ Union stated: “NFU has clearly expressed its concerns about the agreement in principle with Australia, which may increase the import of Australian goods and produce them at a lower cost and on a large scale. How this deal is related to the UK It is also unclear whether environmental and climate ambitions operate simultaneously.
“We believe that the UK’s trade policy should support the climate-friendly food we produce in this country, where we take full advantage of our ocean climate. food The food produced in this way is a far cry from the food produced in deforested or extreme drought areas. “
A spokesperson for the Queensland Ministry of Resources stated that the 2018 legal requirements Better protect high-value residual and regenerated vegetation and important habitats, including important habitats for endangered wild animals.
“Our responsible vegetation management laws continue to protect our precious environment, habitat, and the Great Barrier Reef, while allowing landowners to manage and develop farm operations that are critical to employment and economic recovery after Covid.”
The Australian Red Meat Advisory Committee, the Australian Cattle Council, and Queensland AgForce were all asked for comment.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “As our world’s leading environmental law has now become law, the UK is committed to fighting illegal deforestation and protecting forests more than ever before. After the COP26 summit, we will maintain The “Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration” and the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade Dialogue set the trajectory of stopping and reversing forest loss and greening the global supply chain.”
