Conservation groups are calling on NSW Premier Gladyl Berejiklian to give a commitment that the Forestry Corporation will not be allowed to intensify logging in coastal forests.
North East Forest Alliance spokesman Dailan Pugh said any extensions to timber contacts would threaten the survival of koalas on the North Coast.
‘In order to meet current wood supply contracts, the NSW Government plans to zone most of the coastal State Forests for intensive logging and clearfelling, and to remove the already inadequate protection for core Koala habitat,’ Mr Pugh said.
‘Our analysis shows that of the 6,000 records of koalas on State Forest in north-east NSW, 92 per cent of them are in the 57 per cent of forests proposed to be zoned for intensified logging, with the highest koala densities in the 140,000 ha of State Forests proposed to be zoned to allow virtual clearfelling.
‘Areas of State Forests found in study after study to be core koala habitat, such as in Pine Creek, Royal Camp and Carwong, are intended to be zoned for intensified logging and committed in contracts to the industry.’
“Already an intensification of logging, which the EPA3 describe as “not consistent” with the laws governing logging is occurring.
‘The intensification of logging and reduction in protections for threatened species, such as Koalas, are being driven by 25 year wood supply contracts first signed in 1998.
‘Since then the committed volumes of large sawlogs have had to be reduced by 47 per cent because of the Forestry Corporation’s grossly inflated resource estimations.
‘NSW taxpayers have paid loggers at least $13 million in compensation for non-existent timber they were given for free, and millions more buying timber from private land to supplement supplies.
‘Over that time, koala populations on the north-coast have crashed by 50 per cent. Their demise is one of the costs of logging.
‘According to the NSW Government Forest Industry Roadmap2 the Government began negotiating new wood supply contracts late last year and intend to finalise them by the middle of this year, even though most don’t expire until 2023 and the biggest one, to BORAL, doesn’t expire until 2028.’
North Coast Environment Council spokesperson Susie Russell said new timber contracts would signal the end for NSW Koalas.
‘If the people of NSW want koalas to exist in the wild, then our government will have to stop giving their feed trees and homes to the loggers. It’s pretty simple really.’
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