The North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) say it’s ‘outrageous’ that despite their promise the Minns Government has accelerated logging of the Great Koala National Park.
NEFA says the Minns Government was elected on a promise to save Koalas and create the Great Koala National Park, but a new assessment by the group shows that in the 21 months since the election they have logged 7,185 ha of the park, 8.4 per cent of the State Forests able to be logged, with new operations now starting.
Report author Dailan Pugh said the Minns Government has rejected repeated requests to implement a moratorium, phase-out strategy or protect core Koala habita.
Forestry Corporation’s own data
‘I used the Forestry Corporation’s own logging data for the Great Koala National Park up until 25 March 2024. I updated this by mapping their logging plans and other data to delineate the boundaries of the areas they identified for logging, then I used satellite images to identify which parts of those areas had actually been logged by 20 December 2024.
‘The intensive canopy removal and soil disturbance made logging readily identifiable from satellite images’, said Mr Pugh.
The NEFA assessment Accelerating Logging Within the Great Koala National Park identifies the net areas of native forest in the Great Koala National Park logged as: 20,630 ha logged in 98 months since ALP’s 2015 commitment to protect the Great Koala National Park up until the March 2023 election and 7,185 ha logged in 21 months since the election of the Minns Government in 2023.
‘This shows that in just 21 months the Minns Government has logged 8.4 per cent of the area potentially available for logging in the whole Great Koala National Park.
Monthly average of logging has increased
‘Logging has increased from a monthly average of 211 ha under the coalition government to a monthly average of 342 ha under the Minns government, an increase of 62 per cent, with a marked acceleration in the past nine months.
Mr Pugh said that according to the Government’s density estimates, since March 2023 they have logged the habitat of over 500 koalas, with another 37 Threatened Species previously recorded within the logged areas.
‘Far from Minns’ commitments to protect the places koalas live and create the Great Koala National Park, his government has accelerated the logging of their feed trees and homes.
‘The Forestry Corporation dismisses my report with the patently false claim that I assessed gross areas without accounting for all the areas excluded from logging, they also refer to volumes removed rather than hectares logged.
Forestry Corporation needs to come clean
‘Instead of denying the extent of their logging, the Forestry Corporation needs to come clean and release their data for the areas of the park logged from 25 March 2023 until 20 December 2024.
‘It is past time for the Minns Government to stop the logging and fulfil their original promise to create a world class Great Koala National Park’’, said Mr Pugh.
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