Cattle group want exemptions from EU deforestation rule

Australia's cattle industry wants some agricultural land to be exempt from European Union deforestation rules, worried it could disrupt the nation's beef exports.

From the end of 2024 EU companies won't be able to import beef products from properties where deforestation had occurred over the past four years.

But Cattle Australia has long maintained the rules are unfair because "international deforestation definitions are not aligned with Australian legislation."

After months of consultation, the group that represents beef producers released a policy document on Monday that calls for a rethink on what deforestation is.

And they want agricultural land which has been legally cleared to be exempt.

"We would maintain, quite simply, that Australian land where beef is grown is agricultural land, and therefore exempt under the EUDR (the Regulation on Deforestation Free Products). Simple as that," Chris Parker who heads up Cattle Australia told AAP.

Dr Parker said Australian producers already abide by some of the strictest vegetation management laws in the world.

"Australia has more than 136 existing vegetation laws embedded in state, territory and federal legislation that protects the environment and biodiversity."

But the new framework has been fiercely criticised by environmental groups who have described Australia as a deforestation hot spot, with beef production a major driver.

"These definitions are an attempt to label the use of bulldozers to rip down hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest and bushland each year as a sustainable practice," said Tim Beshara from the Wilderness Society.

On Friday NSW government data showed agriculture remained the primary driver of land clearing in the state, with significant volumes also lost to infrastructure and the logging of native forests.

The data showed that in 2022, 45,000 hectares of land was cleared pushing the five-year tally above 420,000 hectares - which is more than one-and-a-half times the size of the ACT.

While the EU is a relatively small beef export market with around $140 million exported annually, the deforestation definition has implications for the rest of the supply chain, with the potential for supermarkets and banks to adopt the definition.

In August, the supermarket giant Woolworths committed to purchase deforestation free beef, from the end of 2025, and engage with the beef industry to reach a "geographically appropriate definition of deforestation."

The Australian Conservation Foundation has since called on the supermarkets, fast food chains and banks to adopt a "credible" definition of deforestation that aligns with international frameworks.

"Deforestation is the removal of a natural forest ... I think most people would consider that a forest is still a forest, even if it's on a farm," ACF campaigner Nathaniel Pelle said.

ACF said government data, shows that between 2016 and 2020, around 1,590,000 hectares were deforested in regions primarily used for livestock.

"Cattle Australia's proposed definition doesn't align with international frameworks and would leave the industry, or any business that adopts it, open to charges of greenwashing or having their targets ruled invalid" it said.

Last week Australian senators voiced their concern for Australian beef producers and called on the European Union to delay its deforestation rules.

Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins told AAP on Friday the government wants to make sure Australian products "are not impeded".

Mr Pelle added "Australia is not the only country that's asking for a delay to the EU laws. Countries with higher levels of deforestation, like Brazil, Indonesia, are also asking for that."