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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/13/threatened-species-habitat-destruction-australia-15-year-high>
"More than 57,000 hectares of threatened species habitat was approved for
destruction by the Australian government in 2025 – the most in 15 years,
according to analysis by the Australian Conservation Foundation.
The ACF’s latest annual “extinction wrapped” report has revealed that the
threatened species habitat greenlit for land-clearing was about 10 times the
size of Sydney Harbour – more than double the 2024 figure, and over five times
the 10,426 hectares approved for razing in 2023.
Former Greens leader Adam Bandt, the ACF’s new chief executive, described the
year-on-year doubling as “really distressing”.
“A lot of people don’t know that Australia is a global deforestation hotspot …
every year, we lose more forest than the loss from the entire palm oil industry
in Indonesia,” he said. “The nature that we love is under threat like never
before.”
The ACF report also noted that 42 new plants and animals were added to
Australia’s list of species facing extinction.
The northern quoll was the species worst affected by federally approved
land-clearing, with 7,643 hectares marked for destruction.
Of the threatened species land-clearing, 98% occurred in Western Australia,
Queensland and New South Wales. The mining industry accounted for two-thirds of
the area cleared.
The Pilbara region of Western Australia had five animals worst affected by
habitat destruction: the northern quoll, night parrot, ghost bat, Pilbara
leaf-nosed bat and Pilbara olive python.
“The mining projects approved there are just so massive and so devastating for
the threatened species that live there,” Bandt said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
