Australian farmers are committed to planting trees

The Balance of Grass and Tree Cover Dashboard is an industry initiative that identifies trends in woody vegetation and ground cover. The dashboard, created by Cibo Labs, involves the integration of 30 years of satellite data to detect annual trends in woody vegetation and seasonal trends in ground cover.

Overall, Australia’s grazed agricultural lands are increasing in woody vegetation. In fact, the amount of tree cover in Australia has increased over the last 30 years. Total net woody vegetation on grazing properties in Australia has increased from 23.77% in 1995 to 25.48% in 2021. Also, over the past decade the net area of grazing land under forest in Australia increased by around 3 million hectares or around 2.5% of total forest area, despite significant impacts of fire and drought in that time.

In addition, farmers like Paul Crook are actively reforesting their lands, using indigenous plants to help increase biodiversity and also contribute to animal wellbeing by providing shade and shelter for their livestock.

The amount of net vegetation cover in Australia has increased since 1995

This maintained the rise in total forest area that has been observed since 2008.

The annual change in Australia's forest area is calculated by application of forest area change data from Australia's National Inventory Report 2021 (DCCEEW 2023a,b) to the total forest area figure of 133.6 million hectares determined by ABARES using the Multiple Lines of Evidence process.

Australia is second best in the world for reforestation, net growth in forest area between 2010 – 2020

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported on Australia’s reforestation with an average annual net gain in forest area between 2010-2020 of 446,000 hectares per year, representing an area around 2.5% of Australia’s total forest area. This is second only to China with an average annual net gain of 1,937,000 hectares per year.

Did you know?

• The CSIRO believes the red meat industry’s reforestation efforts will help it achieve its goal of being carbon neutral by 2030 (CN30).
• The red meat industry is a partner in the Australian Government’s Growing a Better Australia – A Billion Trees for Jobs and Growth initiative.
• Land clearing in Australia fell from 591,000 ha of primary forest in 1990 to just 56,000 ha in 2015.