After theAustralia government committed more than $1.5bn of taxpayer funds to planting trees in native habitats, it has wiped out carbon gains by bulldozing them in six months.
According to new data, in less than two years, land clearing will cancel out what the public is spending to avoid 125 million tonnes of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere.
The Wilderness Society’s national nature campaigner, Jess Panegyres, says the action is absurd and is allowing Australia to become a global deforestation hotspot.
“We’re putting huge amounts of taxpayer dollars into avoided deforestation and reforestation and at the same time we’re allowing Australia to become a deforestation hotspot globally,” Ms Panegyres said.