Country at War: No One can Agree What to do With Australia’s Trees
By: Andrew Kemmer
In Australia, vegetation-clearing (also called land-clearing) is extremely important for farmers who would rather use their land to grow crops than trees. It is so important to some people that a landowner shot and killed Glen Turner, a New South Wales (NSW) environment officer who opposed deregulating vegetation-clearing in the state.[1] Long before that, NSW farmers had clashed with the government on its vegetation-clearing policies. One farmer climbed up a pole and refused to eat for 52 days in protest of the laws, and the laws have been described as a “kick in the guts to agriculture.”[2] The topic has become highly political, and the man convicted of killing Glen Turner said he was willing to become a martyr for farmer’s rights in order to change the laws so they are more favorable to landowners.[3] In November of 2016 NSW legislators did change the laws, making them more favorable to landowners, but legislators may have found a middle ground that neither environmentalists nor landowners are happy with.[4]
Australia: A Land-Clearing History
Despite the fact that the majority of landmass in Australia is desert, on the coasts there has historically been substantial forest growth.[5] When Europeans first arrived on the continent in the late 1700’s, about thirty percent of Australia was covered in forest.[6] After European settlement there was substantial clearing for agriculture and development,[7] which increased markedly when the country switched to wheat production in the late 1800’s.[8] As of 2009, nineteen percent of Australia was covered in forest.[9] Since the 1990’s the region of Queensland has been responsible for most of the forest clearing. NSW, being where Sydney is located, was the first region to begin clearing forest, and much of it happened in the 19th century; today NSW is second to Queensland in percent of forest cleared every year compared to total land area,[10] but vegetation clearing has stabilized in the area in the last decade. Sixty-one percent of NSW has native vegetation that has not been radically altered, but almost all of that vegetation has deteriorated since settlement.[11]
From a biology and ecology perspective, Australia’s vegetation-clearing is troubling because much of the “remaining vegetation is highly fragmented, disturbed, or ecologically compromised,” so that many plants and animals have gone extinct or are near extinction.[12] Nearly one in four mammals and one in seven birds are threatened by vegetation-clearing.[13] That means that biodiversity is decreasing, which the NSW government and academics alike agree is bad for the ecosystem and for people.[14] Furthermore, it contributes to land degradation, it increases salinity, and it disrupts ecosystems.[15] The Australian government “also argues that native vegetation will improve the land value of a farm, increase production and reduce operating costs.”[16]
NSW Regulatory History of Native Vegetation Clearing
Native vegetation clearing on public lands was first regulated in 1881, and on private lands in 1938.[17] As environmental awareness became more widespread in the 1980’s, NSW made stronger regulatory controls on native vegetation clearing.[18] All native vegetation clearing became regulated under the Native Vegetation Conservation Act 1997, and it only allowed clearing with a development consent or regional vegetation management plan.[19] The legislation was “highly unpopular with landholder interest groups.”[20] The last regulation to be reformed was the Native Vegetation Regulation 2013.[21] That legislation expanded on prior legislation, and it allowed clearing only if it improved or maintained environmental outcomes; certain categories of activities did not require approval for the landowner to take action.[22] Ultimately what that meant is that farmers had to get approval to clear most of the vegetation on their land.[23] That legislation was reformed in favor of new legislation in November of 2016.
New Legislation
The newest regulations on land clearing went into effect under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 and the Local Land Services Act 2013.[24] The regulations were officially implemented on August 25, and they could potentially allow farmers to clear whatever they want from their land without any repercussions.[25] The change was brought about in part because under the old rule landowners were upset that they couldn’t do what they wanted with their land.[26] The new laws were praised early on by farmers as being common sense and cautioned by environmentalists for the dangers of broad scale clearing.[27] The new laws include new allowable activities and a land management code which requires farmers to “set-aside” land in order to offset whatever they clear from their land.[28] If a clearing activity does not fall within the allowable activities, farmers can get approval through the Native Vegetation Panel, which will allow them to “offset the biodiversity impacts of developing their land for agriculture.”[29]
What Does This Mean?
Some say it is a problem that landholders are given the power to assess their land individually to decide whether it can be cleared, even when they do not have a scientific background to base the decision on.[30] However, the New South Wales government has argued that the ongoing decline in biodiversity will not speed up despite that.[31] The rules are complex, and vegetation maps that are supposed to guide farmers on what they can and cannot clear have not yet been finished.[32] The result is that “neither farmers who want to clear more land nor those trying to save dwindling wildlife habitat on private property” know what they can clear.[33] Environmentalists worry that farmers will clear more than they are supposed to because of the murky regulations, and it will lead to an increase in vegetation-clearing throughout NSW. If vegetation-clearing does increase, species like koalas will be in even greater danger of extinction than they already are.[34] On the other side, farmers are not happy that they will have to set aside large amounts of their vegetation in order to grow crops.[35] Privately, some within the government are even concerned about compliance with the laws and think that vegetation-clearing could cause irreversible issues.[36]
The battle over NSW’s new regulations is just beginning, but the results could shape Australia’s history as much as vegetation-clearing has altered the physical face of the country.
[1] Guardian Staff, Farmer Ian Turnbull Sentenced to 35 years for Murder of NSW Environment Officer, The Guardian (June 22, 2016), https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jun/23/farmer-ian-turnbull-sentenced-to-35-years-for-of-nsw-environment-officer.
[2] NSW Rural Team, Questions Raised About Landmark Changes to NSW Land Clearing Laws, ABC News (Last Updated Jan. 23, 2017), http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-12-28/landmark-changes-to-nsw-land-clearing-laws/8123918.
[3] Joshua Robertson, Murdered Environment Officer’s Family Says Land-Clearing Law Change Would Diminish his Life, The Guardian (Aug. 17, 2017), https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/18/murdered-environment-officers-family-says-land-clearing-law-change-would-diminish-his-life.
[4] Peter Hannam, 'Tree Killing': Farmers, Green Groups Fume over 'Onerous' Land-Clearing Codes, The Sydney Morning Herald (May 11, 2017), http://www.smh.com.au/environment/tree-killing-farmers-green-groups-fume-over-onerous-landclearing-codes-20170510-gw17k0.html.
[5] Corey J.A. Bradshaw, Journal of Plant Ecology, Little Left to Lose: Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Australia Since European Colonization, 109 (2012).
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Alec Bombell & Daniel Montoya, Native Vegetation Clearing in NSW: A Regulatory History, NSW Parliamentary Research Service, 2 (2014).
[9] Corey J.A. Bradshaw, Journal of Plant Ecology, Little Left to Lose: Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Australia Since European Colonization, 109 (2012).
[10] Id. at 112.
[11] Alec Bombell & Daniel Montoya, Native Vegetation Clearing in NSW: A Regulatory History, NSW Parliamentary Research Service, 4 (2014).
[12] Id. at 114. In fact, Australia has suffered from more species’ extinction over the last 200 years than any other continent. Himlal Baral et al., Spatial Assessment and Mapping of Biodiversity and Conservation Priorities in a Heavily Modified and Fragmented Production Landscape in North-Central Victoria, Australia, 36 Ecological Indicators 552, 552 (2013).
[13] NSW Rural Team, Questions Raised About Landmark Changes to NSW Land Clearing Laws, ABC News (Last Updated Jan. 23, 2017), http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-12-28/landmark-changes-to-nsw-land-clearing-laws/8123918.
[14] See, e.g., Baral et al., supra note 11; About Biodiversity, N.S.W. Gov’t Off. of Env’t & Heritage, http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/biodiversity/aboutbiodiversity.htm (last updated Aug. 28, 2017).
[15] Alec Bombell & Daniel Montoya, Native Vegetation Clearing in NSW: A Regulatory History, NSW Parliamentary Research Service, i (2014).
[16] NSW Rural Team, Questions Raised About Landmark Changes to NSW Land Clearing Laws, ABC News (Last Updated Jan. 23, 2017), http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-12-28/landmark-changes-to-nsw-land-clearing-laws/8123918.
[17] Bombell & Montoya at iii.
[18] Id.
[19] Id. at iv.
[20] Id.
[21] Id. at v.
[22] Id.
[23] Kerry Brewster, Glen Turner: Family of Murdered Environment Officer Calls for Inquest into Death, ABC News (Jul. 5, 2017), http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-05/glen-turner-murdered-environment-officer-family-want-inquest/8677830.
[24] Biodiversity Reform, N.S.W. Gov’t Off. of Env’t & Heritage, http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/biodiversity/index.htm (last updated Aug. 28, 2017).
[25] Joshua Robertson, Murdered Environment Officer’s Family Says Land-Clearing Law Change Would Diminish his Life, The Guardian (Aug. 17, 2017), https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/18/murdered-environment-officers-family-says-land-clearing-law-change-would-diminish-his-life.
[26] Alec Bombell & Daniel Montoya, Native Vegetation Clearing in NSW: A Regulatory History, NSW Parliamentary Research Service, 83, 86 (2014).
[27] NSW Rural Team, Questions Raised About Landmark Changes to NSW Land Clearing Laws, ABC News (Last Updated Jan. 23, 2017), http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-12-28/landmark-changes-to-nsw-land-clearing-laws/8123918.
[28] Land Management and Regulatory Map, N.S.W. Gov’t, https://www.landmanagement.nsw.gov.au/land-management-and-regulatory-maps/ (Last Visited Sept. 1, 2017).
[29] Id.
[30] http://www.smh.com.au/environment/tree-killing-farmers-green-groups-fume-over-onerous-landclearing-codes-20170510-gw17k0.html
[31] http://www.smh.com.au/environment/tree-killing-farmers-green-groups-fume-over-onerous-landclearing-codes-20170510-gw17k0.html
[32] The government has put out only the first of three stages of the map that will guide farmers. Native Vegetation Regulatory Map, N.S.W. Gov’t Off. of Env’t & Heritage, http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/biodiversity/regulatorymap.htm (Last Visited Sept. 1, 2017). The available map can be found at https://www.lmbc.nsw.gov.au/Maps/index.html?viewer=NVRMap.
[33] Peter Hannam, New Land-Clearing Codes Stoke Fears of Wildlife Loss, The Sydney Morning Herald (Aug 26, 2017), http://www.smh.com.au/environment/by-the-time-we-wake-up-to-it-its-going-to-be-too-late-new-landclearing-codes-stoke-fears-of-wildlife-loss-20170822-gy1iv4.html.
[34] Hannam, supra note 4.
[35] Id.
[36] Id. (speaking on the risks of vegetation-clearing, one staffer said, “by the time we wake up to it, it’s going to be too late.”).