Governments host global nature conference while koala and greater glider homes are being logged

 

FOREST ALLIANCE NSW

Media

October 8 2024

 

The Forest Alliance NSW has restated calls to urgently end native forest logging in NSW to stem the decline of biodiversity in Australia.

The call comes as the Federal and State Environment Ministers host the Global Nature Positive Summit in Sydney over the next three days which aims to drive investment in nature and strengthen activities to protect and repair our environment.

 Justin Field from the Alliance said, “45 football fields a day of native forests are being logged in NSW including the homes of threatened species like the koala and greater glider. There is clear hypocrisy in asking for private investment to protect and restore nature while allowing and funding its destruction through native forest logging.”  

Susie Russell from the North Coast Environment Council said, “the NSW Government is currently logging their promised Great Koala National Park and the state owned logging company has been fined and reported for repeated illegal logging including in greater glider exclusion zones. The state and federal governments could act today and stop the destruction. They need to explain to summit delegates why they are failing to do so, when many other jurisdictions have already moved to protect their native forests.”

Steve Ryan from the Nature Conservation Council of NSW said “Australia is ashamedly a global leader in mammal extinctions. If Governments are serious about reversing the decline of nature and the loss of our beautiful animals, we need to stop allowing native forests to be logged.

Stuart Blanch from the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia (WWF-Australia) said, “forests need protection, timber workers need jobs, home buyers need more sustainable timber. Private investment in plantations can play a role to be sure, but native forest logging needs to end and that should be the starting point in a ‘nature positive’ plan.” 

Dr Sophie Scamps, Independent Federal MP for Mackellar said, “Australia needs to get serious about protecting our natural environment and our great Aussie bush. It isn’t rocket science. We could simply stop subsidising the logging of our native forests, it is a loss-making enterprise being propped up by taxpayer subsidies after all. Equally simple would be to end the exemption of native forest logging from our national environment laws.

 “If the Albanese Government was serious about being Nature Positive it would take these commonsense and simple steps. Instead the Albanese Government is pushing off responsibility for protecting our environment to the private sector without taking these critical first steps themselves," Dr Scamps said.  

 

UNSUSTAINABLE WOOD FROM NSW PUBLIC HARDWOOD FORESTS

According to the official corporate ‘blurb’, our state forest manager, Forestry Corporation (FC), claims, among other things, to produce sustainable hardwood timber from native forests.

This message has long been projected by the industry, but what does it really mean by “sustainable”? Certainly, their hardwood operations in state forests fail to sustain biodiversity, despite their being responsible for managing a million hectares of NSW’s state forests for conservation.

The term managing in this case is fairly loose, and essentially means they no longer plan to log those forests. There is no physical management of any note, such as weed or feral animal control, so much of that million-hectare estate is currently clogged with exotic weeds.

Is the hardwood division economically sustainable? Again, with that division recording multi-million-dollar losses annually for the last 20 years, the answer again has to be no.

Is the quantity of timber supplied sustainable? In that respect the industry’s record over the past 230 years is abysmal. It took only 50 years to drive the majestic Red Cedar to virtual extinction, then another 50 years to do likewise to the iconic Hoop Pine, using them for box wood, and they were only saved from further exploitation by the development of cardboard cartons and plastic crates.

 At Gibberagee State Forest, where the government is currently allowing FC to log koala feed trees by the hundreds, the harvest plan’s estimated yield makes for interesting reading.

 From the 325 hectares of available forest, FC expects to harvest a mere 1,118m³ of high-quality large sawlogs; 956m³ of high-quality small sawlogs, and  31m³ of “poles, piles, and girders. However, by far the largest component of the expected yield is 1,388m³ described as “low-quality salvage”. I imagine that’s wood which is only good for woodchip or burning to generate electricity.

Over the decades log sizes have progressively decreased and for small logs today, 15cm diameter at the small end, less than 30% of that wood is salvaged.

 Native forest logging has never been sustainable, and it’s time to put an end to it.

 

-        John Edwards

Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent  21st June 2023 under the title "Unsustainable Wood".

 

STOPPING LOGGING MAKES MONEY

The North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) is renewing calls to end the logging of public native forests in light of a report detailing that NSW taxpayers will reap a $45 million benefit from stopping logging of North East NSW’s public forests immediately.

With logging causing populations of many forest-dependent species to rapidly decline, spreading weeds, causing widespread dieback, reducing stream flows, and increasing fire risk, there is a need for immediate action, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“As climate heating gathers momentum, the increasing temperatures, droughts, heatwaves and wildfires are compounding impacts.

“We urgently need to help our forests recover from past abuses, to allow them to sequester atmospheric carbon out of harm’s way, regrow big trees for nectar and hollows, and regain their natural resilience.

“And we can make money at the same time” Mr. Pugh said.

The independent public policy think tank Blueprint Institute has released a report  ‘Branching Out: Exploring Alternate Land Use Options for the Native Forests of New South Wales’ which assesses the economic potential of native forest conservation by modelling the value of carbon sequestration and tourism against continued logging, demonstrating “conclusively that there is no economic case for continued logging of native forests on the North Coast of New South Wales”.

They found that managing the North Coast region in a manner consistent with conservation would over the period from now to 2040:

·       abate an average of 0.45 million tonnes of carbon annually, which equates to a net present value of $174 million

·       increase tourism to the region, providing a net present value of $120 million.

After allowing for an Industry adjustment package of $215 million and generous assumptions of potential yields, the Blueprint Institute identified a net benefit value of $45 million in present-day dollars by stopping logging immediately.

“NEFA considers their figures on carbon sequestration grossly understates the annual carbon sequestration potential of recovering forests, and thus the benefits of ceasing logging.  Neither does the report account for the immense environmental benefits.  While the benefits are understated, there can be no doubt that as recommended in the report we need to stop NSW taxpayers subsidising the logging of public native forests and legislate to immediately end their logging,” Mr. Pugh said.

-         NEFA Media Release, 27 April 2023