Northern Territory land-clearing approvals increase nearly tenfold

Extract from The Guardian

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Northern Territory

Exclusive: environmental groups call on government to freeze land-clearing permits and enforce stricter controls

In 2016 and 2017, the Northern Territory government approved about 45,500ha of land for clearing through the Pastoral Lands Board. Photograph: Auscape/UIG via Getty Images

Michael Slezak

Monday 11 December 2017 04.00 AEDT Last modified on Monday 11 December 2017 04.02 AEDT

Australia’s deforestation and land-clearing crisis is spreading from the east coast to the Northern Territory, where land targeted for clearing has increased nearly tenfold in just a few years, with applications approved for enormous amounts of clearing in the past two years.
Vast tracts of land are set to be stripped of native vegetation, with the trees burned, and regrowth controlled with toxic chemicals, in the jurisdiction with limited environmental oversight. On one station alone, an area about one-fifth the size of the ACT is planned to be cleared, most of it intended to allow more cattle to be run.
The revelation has led to environment groups calling on the NT government to freeze the issuing of land-clearing permits and put in place stricter controls.
The increasing rates, pushed by high beef prices, bring with it risks to climate, drought resilience and biodiversity.
They come as law changes in New South Wales take hold, which are expected to dramatically increase rates of clearing there, and as Australia’s richest graziers eye off the pristine Kimberley region of Western Australia as the next frontier to strip of native vegetation.

In 2016 and 2017, the NT government approved about 45,500ha of land for clearing through the Pastoral Lands Board. That was an almost tenfold jump over the average of the previous 12 years of about 4,600ha, which was already an area two-thirds the size of Manhattan.

Applications and approvals for clearing in the Northern Territory

How much of that approved clearing has occurred is difficult to determine, since government figures don’t always match actual clearing rates and are currently two years out of date. But satellite imagery suggests some of the largest recent clearing applicants have already started bulldozing and burning trees.

“Chief minister Michael Gunner needs to stop this unfolding tragedy and freeze the issuing of any more permits while more modern regulations that prevent mass deforestation can be put in place,” said Shar Molloy, the director of the Environment Centre NT.
Some of the recently approved land-clearing applications in the NT are enormous – with clearing on a single property, Maryfield, approved last month for 20,432ha, an area more than three times the size of Manhattan.
Another property called Tipperary station has a total of 50,687ha approved for clearing through a number of separate applications over the past six years – an area almost 10 times the size of Manhattan on the one property. Satellite imagery suggests about 3,000ha of clearing may have already occurred there.

Satellite imagery of possible clearing on Tipperary station

A further 15,300ha of clearing on a property called Flying Fox station is currently under consideration.
These applications and approvals for vast amounts of clearing of native vegetation occurs with virtually no environmental oversight and with no referrals under the EPBC.
The Maryfield proposal was referred to the Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority (NTEPA), which concluded the site was home to a number of vulnerable species of bird, which would likely be impacted by the clearing.
It also recommended to the Pastoral Land Board, which makes the decisions to approve or deny applications, that a “biodiversity management plan” be prepared to manage those risks but the board rejected the recommendation.
The NTEPA assessment also found that although the proponents of the clearing on Maryfield had not considered the impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, those emissions “are likely to make a considerable contribution to the NT’s annual greenhouse gas emissions”. But the assessment went on to say the NTEPA did not consider that a “significant impact” on the environment.

However, the assessment by the NTEPA itself concluded that that very assessment process was inadequate to deal with the broader, cumulative impacts of the large number of extensive clearing applications, “not only from a biodiversity and natural resource impact perspective (including cumulative impacts) but also in the context of climate change policy)”.
“The NT has the worst regulation for deforestation of any jurisdiction in Australia,” said Wilderness Society climate campaign manager Glenn Walker.
Land clearing on most cattle stations in the Northern Territory is governed by the Pastoral Land Board. That board has five members, consisting of four graziers and one scientist.
“Having a board full of agricultural business people as the ultimate decision maker is mind-boggling,” Walker said. “It’s like letting the foxes guard the hen house.”
He is calling for not only a freeze on further approvals but also for the federal government to step in.
“There are very likely threatened species protected under federal environmental laws on these properties where permits are being granted but they are not even being assessed,” Walker said. “The Turnbull government is failing badly to enforce federal environmental laws where deforestation is occurring, just like in Queensland.”
Deforestation in Queensland has jumped dramatically in recent years, increasing four times to 400,000ha a year in the past five years. And notifications of planned clearing have jumped even further, suggesting the trend may not have peaked yet.
“And other jurisdictions are starting to follow its terrible lead,” Walker said. “New South Wales has just weakened its deforestation laws and in Western Australia there are vast clearing proposals for industrial agriculture in the Kimberley. The Northern Territory adds to the growing wave of environmental destruction confronting the nation.”