Ten Sydney harbours’ worth of threatened species habitat cleared under Albanese government in 2025, report finds | Logging and land-clearing

The Australian government has approved the destruction of more than 57,000 hectares of threatened species habitat in 2025 – the most in 15 years, according to analysis by the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The ACF’s latest annual ‘extinction’ report found threatened species habitat allowed to be cleared was around 10 times the size of Sydney Harbor – more than double the 2024 figure, and more than five times the 10,426 hectares approved for razing in 2023.

Former Green leader Adam Bandt, new director general of the ACF, described this doubling from one year to the next as “really painful”.

“Many people don’t know that Australia is a global deforestation hotspot… every year we lose more forest than the entire palm oil industry in Indonesia,” he said. “The nature we love is under threat like never before. »

The ACF report also notes that 42 new plants and animals have been added to Australia’s list of endangered species.

The northern quoll was the species most affected by federally approved land clearing, with 7,643 hectares earmarked for destruction.

Of the threatened species, 98% occurred in Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. The mining industry accounted for two-thirds of the cleared area.

The Pilbara region of Western Australia had five animals most 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 to the endangered species that live there,” Bandt said.

Citing the elusive night parrot, a bird thought to be extinct for a century until 2013, Bandt said: “Two things happened to the night parrot in 2025.

“The first is that it has officially moved closer to extinction and is now listed as critically endangered. The second is that the government has given the green light to bulldoze the equivalent of six Sydney airports into its habitat.”

The federally approved land clearing is only the “tip of the iceberg,” Bandt added, because most land clearing for agricultural purposes had not yet been assessed under state environmental laws.

Reforms to the nature law, passed in November, mean some agricultural clearance and clearing within 50 meters of watercourses in Great Barrier Reef catchments must now be assessed.

Bandt, in his first month as ACF CEO, added that he hoped the new laws “could give nature a fighting chance,” but noted that “the devil will be in the details.”

Under the legislation, the government will create an environmental protection agency.

“A lot will now depend on how it will be established, how it will be financed, and what rules it will have to enforce,” Bandt said. “He can and should be a very powerful watchdog for nature.”

A federal government spokesperson said the Albanian government “remains committed to protecting Australia’s unique and diverse plants and animals – that’s why we fought so hard to introduce a National Environmental Protection Agency and reform the EPBC Act late last year.”

“Under the reforms, projects will have to demonstrate a net gain for nature to be approved, providing stronger protection for threatened species and their habitats.

“The changes, some of which are now in effect, and others that will begin in the coming months, will enable stronger environmental protection and restoration, more efficient and robust project approvals, and greater accountability and transparency in environmental decision-making.