Exclusive: Australia’s biggest environmental philanthropist says private investment to clean up reef ‘doesn’t make sense’ with current land clearing

Donations to restore Great Barrier Reef could dry up if land clearing continues, says donor

Private investment in work to restore the Great Barrier Reef is likely dry up if the Queensland government fails to pass tighter land-clearing laws, warns Australia’s biggest environmental philanthropist.

David Thomas, who has donated $30m and bequeathed another $30m to environmental causes in Australia, told Guardian Australia that state and federal governments’ drive for private investment in Great Barrier Reef water quality projects would be unsuccessful if rampant land clearing continues.

“The Australian and Queensland governments want private philanthropists to help meet the enormous cost of sediment reduction, recently estimated at $7.8bn,” said Thomas.

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“But it doesn’t make sense for governments or anyone else to invest in this sort of remediation if land clearing continues unchecked.

“Every prudent investor would want any such investment to have the best chance of success, and while land clearing continues success seems unlikely,” he said.

According to a government water science taskforce report, land clearing can greatly increase the amount of sediment that flows into rivers, and then onto the Great Barrier Reef. That sediment then smothers coral and seagrass, stopping it from getting the light it needs to survive.

Thomas has contributed large sums of money to groups that act to conserve both land and marine environments, including the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Bush Heritage Australia and the Nature Conservancy.

He has also recently funded the Fight For the Reef Campaign, which was jointly run by WWF and the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

Imogen Zethoven, AMCS Great Barrier Reef campaign director, told Guardian Australia: “It’s of no surprise that generous environmental philanthropists would hesitate to contribute to rehabilitation when it’s so clear any good work will quickly be undone.”

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Zethovan said that if the vote fails, she is concerned water quality won’t be improved. But ambitious targets were committed to by the federal government, in order to keep the reef off the UN’s world heritage in danger list.

“The risk of the Reef being listed ‘in-danger’ would increase significantly,” Zethovan said. “This bill is critical to the survival of the reef.”

A state science department study on land cover released earlier this month found 296,000 hectares of land was cleared in 2014-15, more than a third of it in Great Barrier Reef catchments.

The Palaszczuk government is seeking to pass legislation that would tighten regulations around land clearing in Queensland. It is being debated in the state parliament on Thursday and the vote is likely to depend on two independents, Peter Wellington and Billy Gordon.