Over 600,000 dump trucks of muddy sediment enter the Great Barrier Reef from catchment areas on the land each year, blocking out the sun and choking our corals.
Trees act as the perfect natural filter for the Great Barrier Reef.
But when they are cut down, there’s nothing to hold the soil in place, so it runs into rivers and smothers corals in muddy pollution and causing algae blooms.
This is what’s happening right now – over 600,000 dump trucks of muddy sediment enter the Great Barrier Reef from catchment areas on the land each year.
After coral bleaching caused by climate change, pollution from runoff is the main threat to the Great Barrier Reef. The reef is a UNESCO World Heritage site that provides habitat for an abundance of life including whales, dugongs and turtles, contributes $9 billion to the Australian economy every year and provides 77,000 fulltime Queensland jobs.
Australia has failed to meet its water quality targets for sediment and nutrient pollution in the reef in every year since 2012 when the UNESCO World Heritage Committee warned the Reef’s universal values were under imminent threat and could be listed as ‘in danger’.
Green turtle swimming on the Great Barrier Reef / Xanthe Rivett
Between 2023 and 2024, an area of forest and woodland 1.6 times the size of K'gari / Fraser Island was destroyed in Queensland.
Of this, just under half (43%) occurred in areas that drain into the Great Barrier Reef and most of it (86%) was bulldozed to make way for pasture.
Drone aerial shot of landscape with land clearing in the foreground and water in the background
While deforestation is rife across Queensland, it’s mostly being carried out by a minority of laggards in the beef industry. Responsible graziers and community members have invested a lot of hard work and resources to repair river banks and protect the Reef from sediment pollution. Not only does forest destruction by a few laggards threaten the Reef and the businesses that depend on it, it undermines all the hard work of the farmers and graziers who are managing their land responsibly in order to protect it.
We believe Australians should be able to buy sausages at the supermarket or a burger at their favourite fast-food chain without worrying it could be linked to the destruction of threatened animals’ homes or killing the reef. And the beef we export overseas should not come at the expense of Australia’s globally important nature.
That’s why we’re working hard to ensure the Albanese Government implements its nature protection laws to actually keep forests standing and improve water quality on the Reef. As part of this, it is critical Australia’s new Environmental Protection Agency enforces the country’s nature protection law and doesn’t allow any sector to illegally bulldoze forests and get off scot-free.
Australian beef on supermarket shelves
To save the reef, every sausage and steak sold by Coles and Woolworths, and every burger at Hungry Jack’s and McDonald’s, should come from one of the many Australian farmers who are deforestation-free.
Right now, because the fast-food giants and supermarkets are not acting on deforestation, and don’t know where their beef comes from, any of their beef products could be linked to the bulldozing of forests that is killing the reef.
Help us hold them accountable – sign the open letter to Coles and Woolworths asking them to keep their promise to stop bulldozing nature for beef.