MEDIA RELEASE 7 February 2025

The Forestry Corporation has reduced yields from public native forests in NSW by 28%, though they are only doing so by dramatically reducing the volumes of products they previously claimed to have obtained in each of the past 3 years, according to the North East Forest Alliance.

The Forestry Corporation is legally required to prepare annual Biomaterial Reports that detail areas of native forests logged, and volumes of products obtained, on a compartment basis.

We welcome the Forestry Corporation admitting gross errors in their reporting of timber products by releasing revised Biomaterial Reports for the past 3 years, though we are flabbergasted that they have retrospectively reduced volumes by 28% from what they previously certified they obtained, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

“For the past 3 years they have reclassified 65,584 m³ of premium large high quality logs as lower value small high quality logs, and reduced claimed yields of low quality logs by 616,384 tonnes (36%), NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“For the Forestry Corporation to now claim that they have been certifying grossly inflated yields for years is shocking, though to now retrospectively and systematically change the volumes of each product they previously claimed to have obtained from each logging operation beggars belief.

“The volumes of timber products obtained from a specific area and sold to mills should be an objective fact and not open to revision years later. If the new data is to believed, it means that all assessments the Forestry Corporation’s performance have been based on inflated false information for years.   

“It is also now apparent that assessments of the economic and employment impacts of the proposed Great Koala National Park have been based on grossly inflated claims.

“As a result of NEFA’s complaints about gross errors in the 2023 Biomaterial Report, and inconsistencies with other data, in October the Forestry Corporation released a revised 2023 Report that halved the volume of products, claiming they had rectified gross errors by removing erroneously included data from the previous year.

NEFA and South East Forest Rescue complained about additional errors resulting in the Forestry Corporation releasing revised Biomaterial Reports for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 financial years in January, which claim major reductions in the volumes of timber they previously claimed as recently as October to have obtained. These reductions are on top of the halving in 2023 volumes identified last year.

• For the 2022 financial year the Forestry Corporation has reduced total yields by 28%. While the volumes of high quality logs remain similar, 23,019 m³ of premium large high quality logs have been reclassified as less valuable small high quality logs, and the yields of low quality logs have been reduced by 181,784 tonnes (36%).
• For the 2023 financial year the Forestry Corporation has reduced total yields by 28%. While the volumes of high quality logs remain similar, 25,490 m³ of premium large high quality logs have been reclassified as less valuable small high quality logs, and the yields of low quality logs have been reduced by 233,536 tonnes (35%).
• For the 2024 financial year the Forestry Corporation has reduced total yields by 28%. While the volumes of high quality logs remain similar, 17,075 m³ of premium large high quality logs have been reclassified as less valuable small high quality logs, and the yields of low quality logs have been reduced by 201,064 tonnes (36%).

“Biomaterial Reports are legally required to be prepared by the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval each year, meaning the Forestry Corporation have been providing inflated false reports to the EPA for years.

“Despite oversight by the EPA and auditing by the Auditor General, these gross errors would not have been identified or rectified except for our repeated questioning of errors and inconsistencies in the Forestry Corporation’s data.

“The question is how far back do these erroneous claims extend beyond the 3 years, as they have also admitted they have been wrongly reporting the areas logged for the past decade.

“We welcome The Greens requesting the Auditor General undertake an independent audit of the Forestry Corporation’s data to get to the truth of how and why they produced false data for so many years, and the accuracy of their current claims” Mr. Pugh said.

For further information see NEFA’s Revision of Logging Data for North East NSW

For southern NSW see SEFR’s Southern NSW Biomaterials Reports