Alarming new data shows that over 200,000 hectares of forest and bushland were destroyed in the Great Barrier Reef catchment in 2018-19, illustrating that Queensland’s vegetation laws are not working, the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) says.
Vegetation is important for filtering chemical-laden run-off from agricultural lands and it stabilises and provides nutrients for the soil. Clearing forests and bushlands leads to massive soil loss and sediment pollution of inshore waters of the Reef, smothering corals and seagrass meadows, home to threatened turtles and dugongs.
