https://bobbrown.org.au/nsw-goverment-backs-dangerous-logging-of-native-forests/
NSW GOVERNMENT BACKS DANGEROUS LOGGING OF NATIVE FORESTS
September 16, 2022
Ten conservation groups have condemned the NSW Government’s appalling
statement endorsing ongoing native forest logging before debate is due
in parliament. In a dangerous move for the climate, survival of the
endangered koala and glider and risks to human health, clean water
supplies and increased bushfires, the government has rejected a petition
by 21,000 people.
“In more than two decades of defending NSW’s native forests, I have not
seen a government response that is so dreadful. The NSW government
commitment to ongoing logging is out-of-date, dangerous drivel.
Following the significant move by the Forest Stewardship Council to
remove Pentarch’s Controlled Wood certification, it is incredible that
the government can be so glib in dismissing concerns about such a
destructive and uneconomic industry,” said Harriett Swift, Deputy
Convener of the South East Region Conservation Alliance.
“It’s clear the NSW Government intends to push ahead with its support
for burning wood from our precious native forests in power stations
while falsely claiming it is green energy with zero emissions. There is
no recognition about declining koala or greater glider populations, just
more of the fiction that everything is hunky dory and it’s all
sustainable. The only people who believe that are those making a profit
from the logging,” said Susie Russell, Vice-President, North Coast
Environment Council.
“The minister is grossly irresponsible for ignoring the June 2021 advice
of the Natural Resources Commission to urgently protect the least burnt
forests in high-risk areas and to increase retention of hollow-bearing
trees, and future replacements, because of the loss of hollows in the
fires that over 170 NSW species depend upon for dens, nests and roosts.”
“The NSW Government’s callous disregard for our threatened species is
why Koalas, and hollow-dependent species such as Greater Gliders,
Yellow-bellied Gliders, Gang Gang Cockatoos and Glossy Black Cockatoos,
are becoming increasingly endangered,” NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh
said.
“Public calls for change to NSW native forest management seek to address
the very real threats posed by extreme climate and fire impacts to all
recovering NSW native forest habitats. An end to logging of high
conservation forest stands which provide fire resilience to recovering
koalas and gliders is not debatable in 2022, nor is a NSW ban on burning
of native forest biomass for energy,” said Meredith Stanton, Secretary,
Australian Forests and Climate Alliance.
“This response by the NSW government is obviously in support of its own
agency, NSW Forestry Corporation. However, the environmental, economic
and social record of this entity has been shown time and again to be
destructive, opaque and loss-making, thereby unsustainable, regardless
of their public and interdepartmental statements,” said Paul Payten,
Steering Group, Great Southern Forest.
“The NSW Government falsely uses the IPCC report about ‘sustainable
forest management strategy’ as a justification to continue logging
native forests. It is misleadingly out of context. They ignore the IPCC
calls for the immediate protection of high-carbon ecosystems such as
forests as necessary climate action. We continue to see a government
twisting facts to argue the lost case for native forest logging. There
is just no good argument to log native forests, which supply the best
carbon storage we could wish for. Koalas will not survive ongoing
logging of native forests and its immediate end is critically needed in
NSW and across Australia,” said Doro Babeck, NSW Campaigner for Bob
Brown Foundation.
Supporting organisations:
Bob Brown Foundation
Australian Forests and Climate Alliance
North East Forest Alliance
North Coast Environment Council
Friends of the Forest – Mogo
South East Forest Rescue
Great Southern Forest
South East Region Conservation Alliance
Wilderness Australia
The Australian Rainforest Conservation Society.