McDonalds, Coles, and Woolworths Among Companies Propping Up Deforestation

Still from a stop motion animation depicting deforestation in Australia commissioned and produced by Greenpeace Australia Pacific

McDonalds, Coles, and Woolworths are among the companies named in Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s recent scorecard assessing how Australia’s top retailers stack up in their commitments to transitioning to deforestation-free beef by 2025.1 

In Australia, we’re a nation deeply connected to nature, and are incredibly proud of our outdoors and native wildlife. Yet, despite this, Australia is one of the worst offenders when it comes to deforestation in the world. 

In fact, since European colonisation, Australia has lost over half of its forests.2 Additionally, Australia has one of the highest rates of mammal extinction in the world. Deforestation plays a massive role in this extinction – the equivalent of one native Australian animal per second is killed due to deforestation.3 

Even koalas, one of Australia’s most beloved animals, are at risk of extinction. Approximately 80% of Australia’s eucalypt forests have been bulldozed,4 steadily leaving more and more koalas without a home.

Our forests aren’t just home to animals found nowhere else in the world – they’re also the lungs of Australia. Trees clean our air and store massive amounts of carbon, and when they are bulldozed, that carbon is released into the air – meaning our deforestation is driving the climate crisis as well as mass extinction. 

“You may think that the majority of this destruction is for property development or mining, but as Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s scorecard reports the truth is that over 70% of Australian deforestation is for beef production,5 enabled by the demand of big corporations like McDonald’s, Coles, and Woolworths.

We’re currently in a critical year for nature law reform, with the Australian government considering new environmental protection laws that have the potential to halt the destruction and extinction caused by deforestation. 

As part of its campaign against deforestation, Greenpeace Australia Pacific has launched a petition calling on the Australian Government to become a world leader in forest protection and implement strong environmental protection reforms to end agricultural deforestation in Australia by 2025.

Sign Greenpeace’s petition to call for an end to deforestation in Australia

Help End Deforestation

  1.  Greenpeace Australia Pacific, https://www.greenpeace.org.au/news/enough-of-the-bull-greenpeace-report-slams-australias-biggest-beef-buyers-for-fuelling-forest-destruction/ , May 2024 ↩︎
  2.  Biodiversity Council, Biodiversity Concerns Report, June 2023 ↩︎
  3. The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/land-clearing-isnt-just-about-trees-its-an-animal-welfare-issue-too-80398 , July 2017 ↩︎
  4. Bradshaw, Corey J.A., Journal of Plant Ecology, Volume 5 Issue 1, Little Left to lose: deforestation and forest degradation in Australia since European colonization. March 2012. ↩︎
  5. Queensland Conservation Council, https://www.wilderness.org.au/images/resources/DeforestationReport2022.pdf , October 2022 ↩︎