This Sunday is the national March in March for Forests day where thousands of people come together across Australia to demand an end to native forest logging and forest mining.
Marches are taking place across the country including in Lismore, Bellingen, and Brisbane.
This comes as the NSW Land and Environment Court has imposed a $450,000 penalty on the Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) after it was found to have unlawfully destroyed old growth forest and hollow-bearing trees in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest on the Dorrigo Plateau. The illegal logging concerned six giant, and three hollow-bearing, trees that were over 300 years old and were within forest that now forms part of the footprint of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP).
This new criminal fine against the Forestry Corporation will add to the more than $1.1 million in fines received by the FCNSW for separate offences since June 2022, when these crimes were committed.
‘The community is again paying the bill for the criminal destruction of public forests carried out by a government logging agency. Because the FCNSW is a state-owned corporation, this $450,000 penalty will ultimately be paid by the people of NSW,’ said Greens MP, spokesperson for the environment and solicitor, Sue Higginson.
On Monday forest defenders stopped logging destruction in Cherry Tree State Forest near Casino, by locking onto machinery in the forest.
‘This important forest exemplifies the reason people are marching to protect forests right across Australia,’ said Ms Valerie Thompson, Lismore March in March for Forests organiser for Bob Brown Foundation.
‘Right on our doorstep, the very forests that koalas and endangered greater gliders need to survive is being destroyed. As a climate-impacted region, we need to future-proof our forests as well as our economy by getting away from this destructive industry. The best way to do this is to end native forest logging’.
President of the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA), Dailan Pugh, has expressed concern about the impact of logging on the koala populations in the forest, which was one of very few that escaped the 2019-20 bush fires.
‘From my surveys in Cherry Tree State Forest I found koalas to be widespread due to a density of 18 preferred feed trees per hectare,’ Mr Pugh said.
‘These are trees over 30cm diameter and 90 years old of small-fruited grey gum, tallowwood, and forest red gum. The FCNSW are allowed to log some 80 per cent of these preferred feed trees, which across the 737ha proposed for logging totals over 10,000 mature feed trees, the loss of which will have a massive impact on this koala population for the next century,’ Mr Pugh said.
The Commonwealth and state governments have also recently-released maps of national priorities for protection to honour their commitment under the Global Biodiversity Framework to protect 30 per cent of Australia’s land, freshwater, and marine environments by 2030. The state forests in north-east NSW are noted as being amongst the very highest priorities for preservation.
You can make your voice heard and march to save our forests this Sunday at the Lismore Quad from 10am. There will be community stalls, kids activities, and flashmob dancing classes will start from 9am. Or find out about your nearest march at: https://marchforforests.org/
Aslan Shand, editor
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