The Impact of Land Clearing on the Environment

Table of contents Introduction of problem cont The rate of deforestation in Queensland (Sharwood,2017) Background The land has been highly affected human activities from activities like deforestation, Urbanization or farming . Background Cont ( watson et al., 2016) Background cont 48% of subsistence farming is responsible for deforestation, 32% is from commercial agriculture and 14% is from logging The percentage of tropical rain forest has decreased by 50% over the last 50 years . Bad ways of clearing land affects the fertility and it

CLEARING LAND FOR AGRICULTURE (AGRICULTURAL
CLEARING )

Table of Contents
AUTHOR YEAR TITLE LEGISLATIO N
Noel. D. Preece
Penny Van Osterzee
2017 Australia is a global
top ten deforester
and Queensland is
leading the way
Vegetation
management act
1999
Hugh Finn 2017 Land clearing isn't
just about trees- its
an animal welfare
issue too
State and territory
parliaments
James Watsom
Eve McDonald-
Madden
Jmaes Allan
Kenda;ll Jones
Moreno Di Marco
Richard Fuller
2017 Half the world s
ecosystem at risk
from habitat loss
and Australia one of
the worst
Convention of
biological diversity
Joshua Robertson 2017 Alarming rise in
Queensland tree
Wildness society
Queensland

Introduction of problem
• 13% of Green house gas emission is caused by land
clearing process.
• Birds between 1000 and 2000 die for every 100
hectares of land cleared reason being starvation and
stress due to the change of environment.
• The following percentages show how the heritage of
Australia has been affected by land clearing :- 23%
mammals, 9% fresh water fish, 5% on plants and 16%
on amphibians . If the land clearing goes on then the
species are endangered to extinction(Finn ,2017).

Table of contents
AUTHOR YEAR TITLE LEGISLATION
Howkins, M.,
Wilson, K., Rhodes,
J., Watson, J.,
Possingham, H., &
McAlpine, C. et al.
2016 Queensland land
clearing is
undermining
australia’s
environmemntal
progress.
Parliament

Introduction of problem cont
The rate of deforestation in Queensland (Sharwood,2017)

Background
• The land has been highly affected human activities
from activities like deforestation, Urbanization or
farming .
• The loss of habitat has been higher than 53 times since
1900
• Angola, Congo, Papua New Guinea and South East
Asia are among the regions which are highly affected
by deforestation. It is important to protect the
environment but corruption is very high.

Background Cont
(watson et al., 2016)

Background cont
• 48% of subsistence farming is responsible for deforestation,
32% is from commercial agriculture and 14% is from logging
• The percentage of tropical rain forest has decreased by 50%
over the last 50 years . The total land coverage has decreased
from14% to 6% between 1960 to 1990 and 20% of tropical
rain forest were destroyed .

Background cont
Forest cleared by bulldozers (D Preece and Van Oosterzee, 2017)

Literature review
• Australia has been ranked among top ten
countries with high deforestation rate
• Vegetation Management act 1999 was put in
place at around this helped in the reduction of
the loss of woodlands.
• 80% of species living in woodland and forest
in Queensland is threatened(Robertson, 2017).

Literature Review
• Animals habitat is affected and the ones that
survive are left in a hostile environment which
is unsuitable for their survival.

Strengths
• Allows good lighting to reach crops planted since
some trees are so leafy.
• The farmers are able to harvest food which
allows sustainability of the population of
Australia
• Allows urbanization because of the constant
increase in population
• Farmers are able to carry out subsistence and
commercial agriculture

Weaknesses
• The land clearing process is not well done mostly
the vegetation is burned and this causes the
emission of green house gases in the air.
• Excess land that is cleared and this affects the
biodiversity of Australia.
• Bad ways of clearing land affects the fertility and it
may not produce good crops.(Watson et al., 2017)
• Habitat for animals is destroyed since they use
trees as shelter , food and also nesting .

Opportunities
• There is some land that has been conserved to allow
indigenous trees to grow this allows the farmers to use
the space they own for habitation and farming
• It is possible to educate farmers on the importance of
preserving the environment
• Increase on the amount of penalties to reduce the
rampant tree cutting
• Find other ways farming can be done productively
without affecting the ecosystem(Howkins et al., 2016)

Threats
• The new bill that has been signed to place very high
charges on farmers who clear land or affect water
catchment areas
• Extinction of some animals, birds and trees because of
the rate of clearing.
• Salinity of water goes high because of the clearing and
disruption in the water catchment areas (D Preece and
Van Oosterzee, 2017)
• The weather patterns might change because of
deforestation

Findings and Discussion
AUTHOR FINDINGS COMMENTS
Noel. D. Preece
Penny Van Osterzee
Deforestation is not only
experienced in Australia
but also all over the world
About 80 %percent of
wildlife is experiencing
extinction in Australia
Deforestation is a major
challenge that need s
serious solution to curb it
The clearing of land has a
serious impact to the world
life and indigenous
heritage of any given
region
Hugh Finn Between 2014 to 2915
296,00 hectares is woody
vegetation that was cleared
in Queens land
Some of the laws in place
only express the harm
caused to the land and
leave out how it affects the
animals
Land clearing for
agriculture is so high and
needs a long-term solution
The laws given should
also protect the animals

Findings and Discussion Cont’d
AUTHOR FINDINGS DOMMENT
James Watsom
Eve McDonald-Madden
James Allan
Kendall Jones
Moreno Di Marco
Richard Fuller
Human activity affects the
planet vastly
The nations see the need to
protect the vegetation and
have come up with
different strategies on how
to solve land clearing
menace
It is impressive how
nations are realizing the
major effects land clearing
has towards the well being
of the ecosystem
Joshua Robertson Great Barrier Reef
experienced the heaviest
losses in the clearing of
trees
Despite the laws in place
Australia is still
experiencing high land
clearing activities'
A better approach on how
farmers can produce
without affecting the
ecosystem.
All stakeholders should be
involved for the land
clearing escapades to
reduce

Findings and discussion cont
AUTHOR FINDINGS COMMENTS
Howkins, M., Wilson, K.,
Rhodes, J., Watson, J.,
Possingham, H., &
McAlpine, C. et al.
Despite all efforts to
preserve forests there is
still a high deforestation
rate.
The authors suggest that
the people should prevent
deforestation because its
effects to the economy is
so high compared to
resources used in
prevention.
Prevention is better than
recovery of the ecosystem
since it takes a longer time
to rebuild and more
resources are used

Recommendation
• It is important to preserve indigenous trees,
animals and birds because they represent the
people.
• More education to be done on farmers on how
to use small scale space of land to produce
more
• Conservation to be embraced by the citizens to
prevent extinction.

References
• D Preece, N. and Van Oosterzee, P. (2017). Australia is a global top-ten
deforester – and Queensland is leading the way. [online] The
Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/australia-
is-a-global-top-ten-deforester-and- queensland-is-leading-the-way-87259
[Accessed 14 Sep. 2018].
• Robertson, J. (2017). 'Alarming' rise in Queensland tree clearing as
400,000 hectares stripped. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/05/alarming-
rise-in- queensland-tree-clearing-as-400000-hectares-stripped [Accessed
14 Sep. 2018].
• Finn, H. (2017). Land clearing isn't just about trees – it's an animal
welfare issue too. [online] The Conversation. Available at:
https://theconversation.com/land- clearing-isnt-just-about-trees-its-an-
animal-welfare-issue-too-80398 [Accessed 14 Sep. 2018].

References cont
• Howkins, M., Wilson, K., Rhodes, J., Watson, J., Possingham, H.,
& McAlpine, C. et al. (2016). Queensland land clearing is
undermining Australia's environmental progress. Retrieved from
https://theconversation.com/queensland-land-clearing-is-
undermining-australias-environmental-progress-54882
• Watson, J., McDonald-Madden, E., Allan, J., Jones, K. and Di
Marco, M. (2016). Half the world's ecosystems at risk from
habitat loss, and Australia is one of the worst. [online] The
Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/half-the-
worlds-ecosystems-at-risk-from-habitat-loss-and-australia-
is-one-of-the-worst- 64663 [Accessed 13 Sep. 2018].