RAINFOREST 1 . 8 Land clearing and forest rehabilitation in the Wet

Introduction. Queensland has accounted for more than 60% of the land clearing in Australia over the last 30 years and there is continuing evidence that the rate of land clearing in Queens-land is increasing (Queensland Department of Natural Resources 2000). State legislation (Vegetation Management Act 1999 and Vegetation Management Regulation 2000) and federal legislation (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999) may limit the destruction of endangered vegetation types, habitats and species in Queensland. However, a number of issues surrounding compensation and enforcement of this legislation continue to be debated by different levels of government and it is still unclear how effective it will be in the short term. Indeed, this uncertainty appears to be one of the driving forces behind Queensland's ever increasing land-clearing rates. Against this background it appears an appropriate time to review the land clearing situation in one of Australia's most biologically rich regions, the Wet Tropics of north Queensland. The Wet Tropics. The wet tropical biogeographic region is extremely diverse, containing around 3000 plant species, 50% of Australia's bird species, a large proportion of Australia's invertebrate species and numerous endemic vertebrate animal taxa (Goosem et al. 1999). Approximately one-quarter of the bioregion was cleared during the 20th century, and most of the accessible forests were logged (Winter et al. 1987). To protect the remaining biodiversity and in recognition of the region's global significance, the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area (WTWHA) was declared in December 1988. A common public perception was that this declaration, extending over a large area of Australia's Wet Tropics, has protected the region's ecosystems for perpetuity. However, about 40% of the remaining forests in the bioregion are not under formal conservation protection and 41 of the 105 recognized regional ecosystems are still considered threatened, having been reduced to less than one-third their original area (Winter et al. 1987; Goosem et al. 1999). Goosem et al. (1999) state that continued land clearing is one of the main threats to the ecosystems and species in this region. Rates of land clearing, regrowth and forest change in the Wet Tropics. Recent assessments by the Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) indicate that, in contrast to Queensland generally, clearing rates in the Wet Tropics have decreased by more than 60% over the past decade; from nearly 3600 ha/year in the early 1990s to less than 1300 ha/year in 1999 (Queensland Department of Natural Resources 1999a, 1999b, …