The NSW Forestry Corporation was yesterday convicted and sentenced in the NSW Land and Environment Court for offences relating to native forest logging in 2020. The organisation was fined $360,000 and ordered to cover the legal costs of the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
The breaches were as a result of the Forestry Corporation failing to accurately map two known Environmentally Significant Areas in the Yambulla State Forest and actual harm caused to 53 eucalyptus trees, and potential harm to three threatened bird species in the area.
NSW Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson said, ‘The crimes committed by the Forestry Corporation on this occasion are not isolated, and their ongoing logging of native forests in NSW is regularly reported by the community as having occurred unlawfully.
‘This conviction has taken more than four years to complete and dozens, if not more, of other unlawful logging operations have been undertaken while the investigation and prosecution was underway,’ she said.
‘This makes a mockery of the lawful requirements that the Forestry Corporation must comply with, and demonstrates that the current system of enforcing compliance is failing to protect native forests and the threatened species that live within them.’
High likelihood of reoffending
Ms Higginson said, ‘The Court found that there is a high likelihood of the Forestry Corporation reoffending and that it does not have good prospects of rehabilitation. These findings are a damning indictment of Forestry Corporation’s integrity and demonstrates why we are calling for them to be barred from logging our public native forests.
‘This $360,000 dollar fine is a significant part of the entire dividend that was budgeted to be returned to NSW by the Forestry Corporation, with just $9 million expected in 2024-25. This essentially means that 4 per cent or Forestry’s entire expected return to NSW has been lost as a result of a single breach of the law – of which many more have been reported.
‘The government is ultimately responsible for the Forestry Corporation, and have a duty to protect the people and environment of NSW from this rogue state-owned corporation. Every day this untrustworthy Corporation is doing more damage to the forests, and all at the expense of the people of NSW,’ said Ms Higginson.
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