To read the Supplementary Audit report click here.

On 28 July NEFA located part of a nationally significant Koala population in part of Braemar State Forest scheduled for logging this month. It is part of a larger population that NEFA had previously identified in Royal Camp and Carwong State Forests in 2012 and 2013, which, at the then Environment Minister's request, had been verified by the EPA as being of national significance.

NEFA identified part of an extensive Koala High Use Area (HUA) marked-up for logging. The harvesting plan, and marking-up, showed it was going to be logged under the old IFOA logging rules which required the identification and protection of Koala HUAs. Our appeal to Premier Gladys Berejiklian to intervene to protect Braemar's Koalas was in vain.

Far from identifying and protecting Koala HUAs the Government now intends to log it under Premier Berejiklian's new Coastal IFOA logging rules, which remove the protection for Koala HUAs and require that nothing specifically be done to mitigate impacts on Koalas in this area.

NEFA returned on 8 August to further assess the distribution of Koalas in the proposed logging area, identifying that the Koala HUA likely extends over 24 hectares, that other Koala HUAs are likely to be present, and that outside Koala HUAs Koalas are widespread but limited by the low numbers and diversity of feed trees due to previous logging.

It is not acceptable for the Forestry Corporation to be allowed to rampage through a nationally significant Koala population. As his predecessor did, the Environment Minister Matt Kean must intervene to ensure Braemar's Koalas are fully assessed and adequately protected.

To read the Supplementary Audit report click here.