#landclearing — Public Fediverse posts

Court fines Bucca blueberry farmers $100,000 for building an illegal dam

"The unauthorised dam construction disrupted a creek and removed native vegetation on a property in Bucca, north of Coffs Harbour."

"Two farmers have been fined $100,000 for building an unapproved dam on their property at Bucca, north of Coffs Harbour.The pair has now received regulatory approval for the dam and no orders for its removal or demolition were made." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-06/bucca-blueberry-farmers-fined-for-illegal-dam/107003136
#water #extractivism #rivers #artificialisation #harm #NSW #MidNorthCoast #blueberries #HorticulturalIndustry #regulation #CoffsHarbour #Bucca #LandClearing

The role of ecological disruption in disease emergence.

* "Global commodity markets drive deforestation in Australia, one byproduct of which is the spillover of Hendra virus."

"More than one in five bat species globally are under severe threat from human pressures such as habitat loss and degradation, climate change, overexploitation and disease. Their population numbers and collective health, including the constellation of viruses they carry as a group, respond to these disturbances. Australian flying foxes are no different. The emergence of Hendra virus suggested that something had tipped the ecological balance."

A wildlife ecologist believes "that the virus was being driven out by rapid changes in bat ecology, specifically in the loss of trees that traditionally provided them with food."

"In the short history of European settlement in Australia, around half the woodlands and forests have been modified or removed for agriculture or urban development. At the turn of the century, the period when things began to change in the researchers’ accumulated data, Australia’s deforestation rate was the sixth highest in the world."

"It is no coincidence that, of all places, Hendra virus emerged in Queensland. Nowhere else in the country had seen more of its blossoming native trees removed.In some parts of subtropical Australia, more than 95% of their winter foraging area has been destroyed."

"This modified interface between people, horses and bats explain why the disease was being detected with a greater frequency." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/03/hendra-virus-australia-sentinels-book-extract-animal-to-human-disease-spread
#pathogens #LandClearing #DiseaseEmergence #bats #horses #sprawl #HabitatDestruction #wildlife #harm #destruction #extractivism #deforestation #beef #meat #logging #mining #roads #hendra #VirusSpillover #forests #HWI #Australia

Image: Cleared land and native vegetation in the Brigalow Belt in central Queensland. Photograph: Auscape/UIG/Getty Images/ Guardian

Broadscale clearing in NSW

'Invasive native species' "is a term unique to NSW and it's creating a legal pathway to destroy native vegetation."

"Land-clearing concerns spark call to scrap NSW invasive native species code
It has released a report showing more than 3.2 million hectares of native vegetation in NSW are approved for land clearing under the INS code."

"NSW government data released last week showed land-clearing rates rose 16 per cent from 2023 to 2024, with nearly half of authorised native vegetation clearing carried out under the INS provisions."

"The term 'invasive native species' is meant to conjure up images of a threatening, nasty wasteland that we need to somehow improve … but in fact, it's become a backdoor method for broadscale clearing, as far as I'm concerned." Professor Eldridge >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-30/nature-conservation-council-invasive-native-species-farmers/106945940
#LandClearing #NSW #pastoralism #overgrazing #meat #extractivism #Conservation #INS #biodiversity #harm #extinctions #destruction #governance

Bulldozing Australia’s great tropical savanna
"One of the largest intact and biodiverse savanna ecosystems left on Earth”.

"The environment minister, Murray Watt, has given the green light for the bulldozing of nearly 3,000 hectares of tropical savanna in the Northern Territory without an assessment under Australia’s nature laws."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/24/federal-green-light-bulldoze-tropical-savanna-northern-territory-threatened-species
#biodiversity #cotton #monoculture #ThreatenedSpecies #EPBCAct #LandClearing #NationalInterest #exemptions #laws #Australia #extractivism #water

Image: The Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gouldian_Finch_(8952067299).jpg

NSW "cowboys continue to knock down huge swathes of healthy forests."

"ACF says satellite evidence shows mass native habitat destruction by farmers."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2025-06-21/acf-citizen-scientists-satellite-images-of-land-clearing/105436794
#biodiversity #LandClearing #ThreatenedSpecies #beef #meat #cattle #extractivism #EPBCAct #CitizenScientist #degradation #NSW