AGRICULTURAL and industrial development of northern Australia threaten the survival of the world’s 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, “the Australian savannah has pretty much been off the global conservation radar”. For instance,…
