A proposal to turn 500,000 hectares of Australia’s largest temperate woodland into farmland would see the destruction of millions of trees and destroy the habitat of countless animals and birds.
The Great Western Woodlands spans 16 million hectares in south-eastern Western Australia, ranging from the wheat belt area located west of Kalgoorlie to Esperance and stretching toward the Nullarbor Plain.
The woodlands are the largest intact temperate woodland left in the world - but just 12 percent is protected in conservation reserves. This category of woodland has been mostly fragmented in places such as South Africa, Europe and North and South America.
Scientists have noted the woodland is home to 20 percent of all Australian plant species and 25 percent of all eucalypt species. Many species that have become rare or extinct in other parts of Australia such as bilbies, numbats and scarlet-chested parrots are still found in the woodlands.
Moreover, the move to convert the area to farmland will contradict the federal government’s own Direct Action policy on climate change as it would release up to 40 million tonnes of stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The Great Western Woodlands needs to be protected from any kind of development. Please sign and share the petition.
