Every day across Australia, forests and bushland disappear.
Bulldozers flatten mature habitat. Ancient trees are pushed into piles. Wildlife loses the places it depends on to survive. Much of this destruction happens far from cities and public view—out of sight, and too often, out of mind.
But now, nature has its own watchdog.
Watch on Nature is the Wilderness Society’s groundbreaking, people-powered platform that uses near real-time satellite imagery to expose deforestation as it happens. Built to turn ordinary Australians into citizen scientists, the platform allows anyone with an internet connection to monitor forests, detect land clearing and send alerts that can trigger investigations and campaign action.
What was once the work of a handful of geospatial analysts has become a national movement.
From Queensland’s forests and bushland to the Northern Jarrah Forest of Western Australia, Victoria’s tall forests and the forests of Lutruwita / Tasmania, thousands of eyes are now scanning the continent from space.
What Is at Risk
Australia is one of the world’s deforestation hotspots.
Nearly half of the continent’s forest cover has been cleared since colonisation, and an area of native vegetation roughly the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground is bulldozed every two minutes.
This destruction kills and displaces millions of native animals, fragments ecosystems, degrades waterways and releases enormous stores of carbon into the atmosphere.
Koalas, greater gliders, black cockatoos and countless other species are losing the habitats they need to survive.
Without stronger oversight and faster detection, much of this clearing occurs before governments, communities or regulators can respond.
The Campaign
Watch on Nature combines cutting-edge technology with people power.
Using high-resolution Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, volunteers compare recent images, identify suspicious changes and send alerts directly to the Wilderness Society. Campaigners can then investigate, gather evidence, launch public campaigns and pressure governments and corporations to act.
The platform also empowers regional communities, First Nations groups, ranger teams and citizen scientists with tools that were once available only to specialists.
It is transforming the way nature is defended. Not by waiting for destruction to be discovered months later—but by exposing it as it happens.
The vision is simple and powerful: To create a continent-wide early warning system for deforestation. A network of thousands of people keeping watch over the forests and bushlands that still sustain life.
Because when more people can see what is happening to nature, more people can help stop it.