Leaked Report Says No Logging Native Forests on South Coast After Bushfires

Media release – South East Forest Rescue, 28 November 2021

NSW Government Has Been Keeping a Secret – Leaked Report Says No Logging Native Forests on South Coast After Bushfires

The NSW Government has been keeping secret a report that would effectively stop logging on the south coast. Documents leaked on Thursday via The Guardian show the NSW Government has ignored not one but two reports which advise logging should stop in native forests hardest hit by the bushfires.

The Natural Resources Commission report into post fire logging in NSW dated June 2021 advised the government it should suspend timber harvesting for at least three years in extreme risk zones, including Narooma and Nowra.

The forests on the south coast come under the high to extreme risk category. Management zones that receive high risk ratings can have limited harvesting once there are sufficient additional temporary refuges (preferably unburnt and lightly burnt forest) retained at the local landscape area. The retention requirement for high risk areas is fixed at 75%. Batemans Bay, Badja, Bago and Eden are classified as high risk.

Despite the report calling for an urgent response in June FCNSW are ignoring the report and have already logged more than the recommendations.

“What this means is that the Narooma and Nowra areas should not be logged at all till 2024,” said Mr Scott Daines, spokesperson for conservation group South East Forest Rescue.

“Logging and woodchipping native forests is one of the greatest threats to the forests of the world, and the greatest contributor to climate change on the south coast,” said Mr Daines. “The protection of our native forests is of urgent national and international importance in these times of global climate crisis. This report clearly shows that the Forestry Corporation with its business as usual approach does not care about people, the community or the environment.”

This on the back of Bega Council approving a briquette factory and a pallet factory at the Eden woodchip mill using native forest logs after failing to consider the environmental impacts of logging native forests, including any increased bushfire risk that may arise from those operations, and the harm to the environment from logging already damaged forests. On top of that the Government has thrown millions of dollars called ‘grants’ at the woodchip mill.

Independent NSW MLC Justin Field has described the leaked report as ‘shocking’ and has said that business as usual for the native forest logging industry is simply not possible or acceptable in the aftermath of the 2019/20 fires.

“This report tells us what people who lived through the fires instinctively know, that the fires changed everything and business as usual is simply not possible or acceptable,” said Mr Field.

Conservation group SEFR is calling for an end to native forest logging.