The campaign to end native forest logging has never been stronger, but we have to keep the pressure on.
Report after report tells us that we must stop destroying our public native forests and that we must protect, repair and regenerate them and manage them for all of their important values. This is why we are getting behind the community’s call for the Great Southern Forests National Park.
There are over 400 thousand hectares of public native forests between Sydney to the Victorian border that aren’t part of our protected area network. These forests are home to magnificent and globally significant, forest dependent animals that are threatened with extinction, including Greater and Yellow Bellied Gliders, Spotted Quolls, Powerful Owls and Swift Parrots.
Tell the Premier to get on board with the Great Southern Forests National Park, and end native forest logging.
Our native forests are so important!
Our best defence against the climate crisis. Forests drawdown and store carbon emissions. The healthier our forests, the more effectively they can do this life saving work. If we do not stop logging our forests and manage them back to health experts have warned, they could become carbon emitters, and that would be disastrous.
Home to many species on the extinction list. So many of our forest dependent species are edging so close to extinction is frightening. Some of our rarest and most unique plants and animals rely on forests and the hollows in mature forest trees to survive. The only way for animals like the Greater Glider, Yellow-bellied Glider, Koala and many other animals to survive is if we stop logging their forest homes now.
Essential for soils, rain and water. Forests are crucial for the health of our soils and waterways. The long term cycle of organic matter breakdown in native forests, sometimes over hundreds of years, is what keeps soil in these areas rich in nutrients. Our native forests are also critical for the health of our waterways. Forests create water vapor flows, which creates rain. These flows are vital for the survival of all life on earth. Evidence now points to even limited destruction of forests can change the whole climate of a region. Forests also improve and protect the quality of our waterways by preventing erosion, breaking down pollutants and providing shade.
Native Forest Logging is bad for us and bad for the planet
Increases fire risk. Logging disrupts the humid microclimates of forests, making them more susceptible to fire. As we experience more severe hot, dry weather periods due to climate change, logging forests exacerbates the already increasing risk of fire. By destroying the canopy that keeps forests damp, logging creates more flammable fuel for fires. There is now conclusive evidence that logging native forests increases the risk, both of frequency and intensity, of bushfire, not reduces it.
Costing massive amounts of public money. The hardwood timber industry ran at a loss of $29m in 2023-2024. The Forestry Corporation dividends for 2026-27 were estimated to be $42 million when the 2023-24 budget was handed down in September 2023. The 2024-25 budget estimated that Forestry would deliver a dividend of only $4 million in 2026-27, representing a decrease of $38 million. That is alongside dividends that were $8 million less in the 2023-24 financial year and $9 million less in the 2025-26, for a grand total of $55 million less in dividends from Forestry between 2023-24 and 2026-27.
None of this dire economic picture includes the $80m of fire and flood recovery expenses that have been sunk into the industry over the past few years. The amount of public subsidies to the industry is estimated to be at least $441 per hectare per year. The costs incurred by native forest logging such as building accessways, environmental law compliance and haulage are not being recovered in revenue. In 2021 IPART reported an average shortfall for $3.96 per green metric tonne.
We need to end native forest logging now. For our threatened and endangered species, for our communities and for the climate.
We’re calling for:
An immediate end to native forest logging
Communities across NSW are watching, and desperately want to see action on the extinction crisis. Ending native forest logging is an essential part of that action. We elected a Government different from the last, and we are desperate for change. Every day that is wasted, more of our precious forests are felled and we can’t get back.
Including all public native forests in the protected area network
The health and structure of our public native forests have diminished after many years of intensive logging with negligible active regeneration actions. Many are weed infested, dried out, lack the diversity and big old trees they once had and they harbour invasive species. We need to protect these forests with a long term strategic management plan and significant investment into the regeneration of these ecosystems.
A plan to fairly transition the industry to softwood plantation
The native forest logging industry in NSW is in freefall, people and communities are losing out as this happens with no plan to transition workers and facilities to soft-wood plantation and other industry. With a plan to ensure all workers are able to continue meaningful employment in the industry and processing facilities transitioned to processing soft-wood, so people and communities can thrive alongside our native forests.