Deforestation In Australia

According to the Human Development Index for 2014, Australia is the second most-developed country in the world; however it is responsible for hundreds of years of large scale deforestation and forest degradation.

In total, around forty percent of Australia’s forests have been destroyed by deforestation whilst a significant amount of the existing vegetation is badly damaged. Australia currently has around 125,000,000 hectares of forest which covers sixteen percent of the country’s land area. These vast forests (both temperate and rainforests) are located mainly on the East Coast of Australia, as shown on the map.

Causes

Around 13% of the original vegetation (from the time where the first settlers arrived) in the country has been cleared for

Rates of Deforestation

According to the U.N. FAO, 19.4% (149,300,000) of Australia is covered in forest. 3.4% of this is said to be primary forest which is rich in biodiversity. Between 1990 and 2010, Australia’s forest decreased on an average of 0.17% per year. During this period of time around 5,200,000 hectares were lost due to deforestation.

Effects of Deforestation

Deforestation has many effects on both people and the environment. Animal and plant habitats are destroyed, increasing the risk of extinction of endangered species. The biodiversity in these forests therefore decreases. Potential medicines are also destroyed as many rare varieties of plants exist in the rainforest.

The lack of a tree canopy results in soil erosion as there is no protection from the heavy rains. The nutrient cycle is also affected by the removal of trees as nutrients are rapidly leached from the soil, leaving it infertile.

Local and world climate are also affected. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are given off as a result of deforestation, accelerating global warming. Trees release water vapour through transpiration, so a reduction in the number of trees means less water vapour is present in the air. This leads to reduced rainfall and the increased likelihood of

The Regional Forest Agreements are twenty year plans set out to conserve and protect Australia’s forests. These strategies have involved major developments and advances, but have only covered ten percent of the continent’s forests so there has been no significant improvement to the rainforests as a whole.

Agro-forestry is the practice of growing trees and crops together. It benefits the farmers as well as conserving the rainforest as they can use the canopy for protection and the humus from decayed leaves as a natural fertiliser to increase their crop yield.

Another possible solution is the planting of new trees once others have been cut down. This is known as afforestation which ensures that the tree canopy is maintained.

Tree measuring is also being carried out in the forests to ensure younger trees have a chance to grow and survive. This involves only cutting down the trees which have reached a particular height.

These solutions will all benefit the rainforest by reducing the effects of deforestation in some way. Despite Australia being a rich and highly-developed country their lack of management and disinclination to date to develop better approaches means the issue of deforestation has failed to improve