Ending Deforestation

Deforestation and land clearing is a contributor to climate change as killed trees release the carbon which they absorbed as they grew. Land clearing also happens in Australia, especially in NSW and Queensland, according to a WWF fact sheet. In Queensland alone, 395000 hectares were cleared in the year from 2015 and 2016 according to a Queensland Government report. In fairness, this was not all dense forest but even so, this is still a lot.

Clearly, as part of the effort to stop climate change getting worse, we have to arrest vegetation loss. This does not mean that no tree can ever be cut down. This is what I propose as policy in Australia:

• When vegetation is to be removed from private land, offsetting vegetation had to be planted, also on private land, ideally in advance. Public land should not be used to offset vegetation loss on private land so the option is held open to use the public land for additional vegetation in the future and decrease CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
• Until the offsetting vegetation has grown such that is holds as much carbon as the cleared vegetation did, the difference in carbon is taxed at a reasonable rate, something like $5 per tonne of CO2 per year.
• As the amount of carbon both in cleared and in offsetting vegetation can probably not be measured exactly, it will the necessary to estimate it as a range. The value taken would always be the value at the top of the range for cleared vegetation and at the bottom of the range for offsetting vegetation. In this way, vegetation will tend to increase slightly rather than decrease slightly.
• Vegetation loss on public land should similarly be offset with vegetation of public land.
• When vegetation is lost as part of a natural disaster or bush fire, no tax on it would be payable provided that the vegetation is allowed to regrow.