Australia is at the forefront of global nature destruction; while we have more unique wildlife and ecosystems than almost any other country in the world, we also lead the world in mammal extinctions. Australia is also the only developed country with a global deforestation front, similar to the Amazon and the Congo.

While international commitments from economic markets like the EU and the world’s biggest investors and consumer companies have begun setting laws and restrictive policies to prevent the sourcing and financing of products linked to deforestation, a significant number of Australian farmers and the banks that finance them have failed to take any action. Not one of Australia’s big four banks has a no deforestation policy, nor do they monitor deforestation activities across the properties they finance through lending or investment.

The authors of this report analysed clearing in Queensland between June 2018 and June 2020 and linked instances of deforestation to Australian banks via searches on title securities. The analysis found that over 364,000 hectares of clearing during the period met the strictest international definition of deforestation and also represented a potential breach of Australia’s federal environmental law because it was high risk for significantly impacting a matter of national environmental significance (MNES) without approval.

Australia’s strategies and investment in biodiversity do not match the scale of the challenge. Without transformative change, Australians will continue to see species extinctions and deteriorating ecosystem conditions which are already destroying the natural capital on which the economy and our access to food, water and health depends.