A deforestation surge in Queensland, which the latest government data suggests is about to accelerate dramatically, is heavily concentrated in catchments for the Great Barrier Reef, further undermining plans to improve reef water quality.

The finding has renewed calls for the federal government to use its powers to assess the impact of clearing there until the Queensland government is able to pass legislation to halt it itself.

“There’s a deforestation frenzy happening in Great Barrier Reef catchments, which means more erosion and more muddy and polluted water smothering coral and seagrass,” said Jessica Panegyres, a campaigner at the Wilderness Society. “The Turnbull government has done virtually nothing to stop this – it’s a national disgrace.”

Catchments for the Great Barrier Reef – where freshwater rivers and floodplains drain on to the reef, washing any pollution or sediment with it – make up about 10% of Queensland’s area.

But among landholders who have notified the state government that they plan to clear on their land since 20 July 2016, almost a third are in Great Barrier Reef catchments.

Since July 2016, notifications of land clearing in Queensland have surged by 30% compared with the already concerning average for the preceding three years. If that translates to a 30% jump in land clearing, Queensland – a region already marked as a global deforestation hotspot – could experience rates of land clearing seen just twice since detailed observations began in the 1980s.



Of the more than 1.1m hectares earmarked for clearing since July 2016, 332,710 hectares of that is inside Great Barrier Reef catchments, according to analysis released by the Wilderness Society.

Almost all of it is “remnant” forest or bushland – a term used to describe forest that has not previously been cleared.

The Queensland Labor government tried to pass legislation to halt the land clearing surge caused by the previous Liberal National party government, but failed when one former Labor MP, now independent, voted against it.

Conservationists fear the surge in clearing notifications indicates the start of panic clearing, ahead of legislation Labor has promised to pass if re-elected.

But when campaigning to stop Unesco from listing the Great Barrier Reef as a world heritage site “in danger”, the federal government promoted its powers to stop this clearing.

In its update to Unesco about the progress of its failing Reef 2050 Plan, it said: “The national Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999 also regulates actions that are likely to result in a significant impact on the Great Barrier Reef and offers important protections in relation to large-scale land clearing.”

Sine then, the federal environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, has said if the clearing activities “have, will have or are likely to have a significant impact on a matter of national environmental significance under federal environment law”, then they required approval under the act.

Frydenberg also told the ABC the Turnbull government had powers to enforce those laws and would continue to do so.

The only time the federal government did move to force a clearing activity to gain approval under federal law, it caused ructions within the Coalition.

“The Turnbull government is trying to hoodwink the UN, saying it will act on deforestation in reef catchments while the destruction continues,” said Panegyres.



“It has not addressed the major problem of the cumulative impact of the thousands of instances of deforestation in reef catchments. You’d have to be Blind Freddy to not know that bulldozing nearly half a million hectares in Great Barrier Reef catchments is going to have a significant impact on reef waters.”

Frydenberg’s office told the Guardian on Friday: “As with most land management matters, the clearing of vegetation is largely a matter for state governments to manage.

“It is, however, already the case that landholders are obliged to refer any land clearing action to the federal government for assessment where that action could have a significant impact on a matter of national environmental significance, such as the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.”