A new study published in today’s issue of Current Biology found that one tenth of the world’s wilderness has been destroyed since 1993.
3.3 million Square kilometres of wilderness has been lost, an area half the size of Australia.
Revel Pointon is a law reform and litigation solicitor with the Environmental Defenders Office Queensland.
She says that the report is shocking but important.
Though the report finds that much of Australia’s wilderness remains intact, in Queensland land clearing has more than doubled since 2009.
Introduced by the Newman government, the Vegetation Management Framework Amendment Act 2013 reversed vegetation laws that successfully reduced land clearing. One year on, 296,000 hectares of bushland was cleared – mainly for conversion to pastures.
Ms Pointon says that there is a lot of work to do in protecting the wilderness of Queensland.
(FEATURE IMAGE: FLICKR, RECOVERLING)
