A new report by the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), The Living Forests, has highlighted Australia as the only developed country in the top 10 deforestation hotspots.
WWF predicted up to 6 million hectares would be cleared in Eastern Australia by 2030, ranking it with the Amazon, Vietnam, Borneo and the Congo.
Deforestation is Australia’s greatest hidden environmental crisis, killing 34 million animals, including koalas, a year, adding to climate change, damaging soils and water resources and threatening the Great Barrier Reef.
Deforestation rates increased 250% to more than 1.2 million hectares between 2011 and 2016 after tree-clearing controls were gutted in Queensland and NSW.
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