Sydney - Australia, a rich country, has frequently lectured Indonesia, its poor neighbour, on felling of its forests.

Australians, though, seem unconcerned at the rate of land clearing of their own continent, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) claimed.

Queensland, which occupies most of the east coast, is where the bush is disappearing the fastest. The latest annual edition of the Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) reports that 
375,000 hectares of forest were cleared in 2005.

"It's a huge blow for our wildlife, our climate, our rivers and reefs," says the WWF's Nick Heath. "In order to function properly, our ecosystems depend greatly on all the plants and animals that are lost."

Farmers clearing land for agriculture accounted for 41 million tons - almost a quarter - of Queensland's greenhouse gas emissions in 2005.

The obvious conclusion is that Australia won't be able to make the required cut in its emissions unless it does what it asks Indonesia to do: stop clear-felling forests.

"Halting the practice is a cheap and easy way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Heath said. "It just takes the political will to intervene." (dpa)