Wilderness Society has funds to launch SkyScout craft in Queensland and NSW – and wants a third for Western Australia

The Wilderness Society’s appeal for its SkyScout drone program to catch farmers land clearing

Conservationists are raising funds to launch a drone program across three Australian states, aiming to catch farmers conducting broadscale clearing and to share the images with the world.

The Wilderness Society has used a Pozible campaign to crowdfund enough money for two drones which it will fly in Queensland and New South Wales, and it hoping to raise enough for a third in Western Australia.

It says the SkyScout program aims to show people how much native habitat is being destroyed, much of it a result of weakened laws in Queensland and NSW.

“In Queensland alone, an area the size of the MCG is cleared every three minutes,” the society says on its campaign page. “Not so long ago, we had stronger state laws against devastating mass deforestation. But those laws recently came undone.”



The society’s national campaign director, Lyndon Schneiders, said the organisation had carried out polling that showed the public was not aware how much land clearing was occurring. But it also showed that when informed they were more likely to support tighter restrictions on land clearing.

“That’s why we’re keen on the drones,” Schneiders said. “It’s out of sight, out of mind for most people.”

The online poll of 800 people in south-east Queensland conducted in November found almost half (47%) of people thought the state needed stronger laws to prevent land clearing. Only 18% thought the laws were about right and a further 18% thought it should be made easier for farmers to clear land.

But just 20% said they were aware that rates of clearing had tripled in Queensland and, when respondents were made aware of that, more than two-thirds said laws should be strengthened to prevent clearing.

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Schneiders said the vast majority of farmers were not clearing irresponsibly. “Our issue is the very small proportion of farmers in Queensland who have used these laws to go on an orgy of clearing in the last three years. We understand, most farmers do genuinely care about their country and do want to run it sustainably.”

Analysis of land clearing in Queensland suggests it is causing emissions equal to those that the federal government claims it is avoiding by paying other farmers to stop clearing. The surge has also been linked to a dramatic rise in koalas and other wildlife needing rescuing in the state.

AgForce, the Queensland farming lobby group, and Farmers NSW have both lobbied for weaker land clearing laws. AgForce declined to comment on the campaign, and a spokeswoman for Farmers NSW said: “Our farmers don’t carry out deforestation, so we don’t think we’re the appropriate association to comment on this.”

Last August Guardian Australia revealed drone footage showing Queensland farmers who had campaigned against stronger tree-clearing regulations – and who had said farmers were “the country’s greatest environmentalists” – had bulldozed thousands of hectares of native vegetation.