The Environmental Centre NT has called for federal intervention into the projected tripling of the NT’s land clearing rate this year, over the historical average 20-year average, stating more than 16,000 ha of native vegetation was approved for clearing in just 10 days.

A recent The Guardian report indicated that under the Finocchiaro Government this year, permission had been granted to clear 25,780 ha of native vegetation, an area roughly twice the size of Darwin and about 90 times larger than Sydney’s CBD, with calls from the Environment Centre NT for the federal Environment Minister Murray Watt to step in.

She said the report indicated the government was expected to approve clearing 45,895 ha by the year’s end, which ECNT director Kirsty Howey said was a concerning trend of destruction, with recent analysis revealing that 274,400 hectares of native vegetation in the Territory had been approved for clearing between 2003 and 2025.

“The CLP is unleashing an environmental catastrophe, approving more deforestation in six months than has been approved in any one year in the last decade,” Dr Howey said.

“This represents the Territory’s worst land clearing crisis since 2016, far exceeding even Labor’s troubling 50 per cent increase in deforestation over their previous decade in government.

“It’s horrifying that more than 24,000 hectares of vegetation could be approved for bulldozing without even being considered by Australia’s federal Environment Minister.

“The system is at a crisis point in the Northern Territory, with a board stacked with pastoral and farming interests routinely approving the bulldozing of a natural icon on a massive scale without rigorous environmental scrutiny.

“It’s a clear conflict of interest – like letting students grade their own homework.”

There were more than 16,000 ha approved to be cleared by the Pastoral Land Board in the period from June 3 to June 13, according to the website, which is more than 50 per cent of the total for the year.

The Guardian reported that the board did not consider that any of it needed to be referred for assessment under federal environment laws around the potential impact on threatened species and ecosystems.

Dr Howey said federal nature laws must be reformed immediately to stop the deforestation across the NT as the largest intact savanna woodland left on earth.

The Pastoral Land Board is chaired by the former head of NT Farmers Paul Burke. Pastoral leases account for about 45 per cent of the Territory’s total land area.

Charles Darwin University professor Brett Murphy said it was a shocking situation that despite a relatively large area of land being approved to be cleared this year, the federal Environment Minister had never used existing laws to assess pastoral clearing in the Territory.

“It doesn’t make sense to have ecologists releasing bilbies into the wild and trying to save critical habitat while its destruction is being rubber-stamped across the Territory,” Prof Murphy said.

In March, the CLP Government enacted legislation that empowers the newly appointed Territory Coordinator to supersede numerous local laws, diminishing the safeguards for Aboriginal heritage and the environment.