When the homes of threatened animals are bulldozed with no one around to see, will those behind the wheel ever be held to account?
Thanks to our team of volunteer investigators, the answer now is yes!
This year over 1,600 volunteer investigators joined our mission to expose deforestation and stop the bulldozers as part of ACF Investigates 2026.
ACF investigates tasks volunteers with a simple yet vital mission: to use a smartphone or computer to scan satellite imagery and identify possible cases of deforestation. Australia is a deforestation hotspot and every day precious animals like koalas, regent honeyeaters and greater gliders are losing their homes and being pushed closer to the brink of extinction.
ACF Investigates is an easy and accessible way for people to resist the lure of doom scrolling and take tangible action for nature.
Image: 700 hectares of koala habitat bulldozed in Undullah Queensland
Our top statistics from ACF Investigates 2026
🔍 1,625 investigators from 39 countries scanned over 10 million hectares of land (almost twice the size of Tasmania) and collectively contributed the equivalent of one year of full-time work, in just 8 weeks.
🛑 Volunteer investigators were able to quickly identify three cases of ongoing bulldozing happening on the ground. Once these cases were spotted, ACF’s investigations team immediately jumped on the phone to speak to the landowners and appropriate authorities and were able to stop the bulldozers in their tracks!
🚨So far, we’ve reported 22 cases of clearing to state or Federal governments who are investigating further. We know that’s just scratching the surface, and we’ll be making more reports over the next few months to hold the bad guys behind the bulldozers to account.
Cracking the case: stopping active bulldozing
In a record for our crowd-sourced investigations project, we were able to uncover and stop three cases of live bulldozing.
In NSW, we discovered bulldozers clearing 2,047 hectares of pink cockatoo habitat. We jumped on the case, contacted the authorities, and stopped the bulldozers in their tracks before they could destroy more.
In the Great Barrier reef catchment in Queensland, the team uncovered 350 hectares of koala habitat being destroyed. We reported it to the federal and state authorities, and it was immediately stopped.
In QLD we found another potentially illegal case where 700 hectares of koala habitat was being bulldozed. We reported the clearing to the federal authorities for further investigation and the clearing stopped.
Unfortunately, we can’t get to every case while the bulldozers are still rolling. Earlier on in the investigation we uncovered a potentially illegal case of bulldozing where an area the size of 200 Olympic swimming pools had been destroyed. Koalas had been spotted within a 5km radius of this area, meaning the flattened trees were likely home to our already threatened furry friends. Unfortunately, the bulldozing had already been completed, but we reported it to state and federal authorities and are waiting to hear more.
Image: In north-western NSW, Pink Cockatoo habitat has been flattened or cleared since the Pink Cockatoo was listed as endangered in 2023.
What happens next?
After all the hard work of our volunteer investigators, it’s over to the ACF team to delve deeper into all the cases we’ve uncovered together.
We are still scoping out hundreds of cases to sort out which ones could be illegal and need to be reported to State and Federal governments – so far we have over 60 cases.
We’re also always looking at the bigger picture. While each individual case we find is important, we know that change needs to happen at a systemic level. So, we’ll be using the data we’ve gathered to drive our national campaigns calling for governments, banks and corporations to step up and do their part to build a world where people and nature thrive.
While our mission for ACF Investigates 2026 might be coming to a close, the bad guys are never far away. Sign up to be the first to hear about our next mission for 2027.