Water research experts have called for urgent reforestation to mitigate climate change caused by the widespread land clearing which occurred in Western Australia up until the 1980s.
Researchers from the Centre for Water Research at The University of Western Australia analysed rainfall and land clearing data and found that extensive deforestation was a major cause of the rainfall decline experienced in the State's South West.
UWA Honorary Research Fellow Mark Andrich said land clearing of the forested coastal strip region south of Perth, which removed 50 per cent of the native forests between 1960 and 1980, coincided with a 16 per cent reduction in rainfall relative to stationary coastal rainfall.
The researchers analysed existing rainfall and land clearing data which showed that winter rainfall along the coast was stationary, while rainfall declined inland during periods of extensive logging.
Dr Andrich said the research conclusively showed that the clearing of South West forests between 1960 and 1980 had caused a direct reduction in rainfall of around 15 per cent at Mundaring Weir - an important source of drinking water for West Australians. It also showed a decline in Wheatbelt winter rainfall relative to rainfall on the coast also started around 1960.
"For example rainfall at Wilgarrup declined by 28 per cent between 1960 and 1970, relative to stationary coastal rainfall," he said. "Over the same period the rainfall ratio for Duranillin in the central Wheatbelt, compared to Cape Naturaliste at the coast, declined by 13 per cent.
