Cattle group to fight EU's beefed up deforestation laws

Cattle producers are at loggerheads with the European Union on deforestation and will draft their own definition ahead of beefed up laws to be introduced in 2025.

The EU will bring in new legislation in January that bans goods that have come from deforested areas.

“We need to ensure that we can get a definition that is accepted across the supply chain, that is scientifically based and in line with international expectations,” Cattle Australia head Chris Parker told AAP.

“Their (deforestation) definition does not suit the way we use agricultural land, particularly in the grazing in the cattle industry.

“We need better data and a better understanding of how we collect that data.”

Cattle Australia, the peak body for cattle farmers, wants input from stakeholders across the supply chain including banks, producers and processors, to come up with their own definition.

The group launched a set of principles at Beef Week in Rockhampton on Thursday night that underlined its policy on deforestation.

“We need an Australian-specific definition that recognises the uniqueness of the Australian environment,” Dr Parker said.

“We see this as being a serious attempt to provide a serious definition that’s in line with the way we responsibly manage our environment.”

But conservation groups have condemned the move.

“They’re interested in further denying that there is a problem in Australia when it goes completely against all the evidence,” Glenn Walker from Greenpeace said.

“Australia has globally significant levels of deforestation, that is a fact,” he said.

“There is already a global best-practice definition of deforestation.

“The best thing for the beef industry, particularly the big beef buyers, to do is to clean up their supply chains.”

Conservation groups fear Cattle Australia is trying to deny deforestation issues. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

The Wilderness Society said a recent series of FOI’s of federal government submissions to the EU showed Australia is underplaying the deforestation issue.

“There’s no mention of the issue of deforestation, the extent or impacts in the submissions and representations that we have found through the FOI,” the Wilderness Society’s Adele Chasson told AAP.

“The Australian government is telling the world Australia is a global leader on environment issues, all while asking for delays and exemptions to the EU’s flagship deforestation regulation.”

This week agriculture minister Murray Watt confirmed he had written to the EU to ask for the legislation to be deferred because of the trade uncertainty it had created.

Beef producers say a new definition would help bring clarity to those on the ground.

“The best available data out there suggests that, yes, (deforestation) is occurring, but it’s not particularly at high levels,” Dr Parker argued.

Queensland, which is widely regarded as having the best deforestation data available, found almost 350,000 hectares of woody vegetation was affected by clearing activity in 2020–21.

Almost 90 per cent of that was attributed to cattle and sheep graziers.

Around 3750 tonnes of Aussie beef is exported to the EU each year, making it a small market for Australia, but the expectation is that other markets may follow.

The deforestation definition will be drafted over the next few weeks and will seek input from stakeholders across the cattle supply chain, although the EU is under no obligation to accept it.