AGRICULTURAL and industrial development of northern Australia threaten the survival of the world鈥檚 largest tract of tropical savannah woodland. So warns a from the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.
Such woodland once covered 12 million square kilometres worldwide, but almost 70 per cent has been cleared. According to a new analysis of satellite data in the report, northern Australia now has more than 25 per cent of the remainder of this habitat. Yet until now, says report author Brendan Mackey of the ANU, 鈥渢he Australian savannah has pretty much been off the global conservation radar鈥�. For instance, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, published in 2005 by the United Nations, concentrated on degradation of the African and South American savannahs.
The report is expected to be scrutinised by a government and industry task force now studying whether developing northern Australia could take pressure off the drought-prone south.
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