MEDIA RELEASE 14 December 2024

In response to the Forestry Corporation posting a loss of $29 million on its hardwood logging operations last year, almost double their loss of $15 million the previous year, the North East Forest Alliance is again calling for an immediate end to the logging of public native forests.

The logging of public native forests is an economic basket case, costing taxpayers a fortune to pay to degrade a public asset and drive numerous species towards extinction, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

“The Forestry Corporation’s Annual Report 2023/24 identifies they made a loss of $29 million logging publicly owned hardwood forests, which equates to a loss of $3,058 for each hectare logged*.

“It is outrageous that we are paying over $3,000 per hectare to log the homes of Koalas, Greater Gliders and hundreds of other threatened species on public lands.

“In addition to its logging losses, last year the Forestry Corporation also received over $42 million in government grants, as well as expending tens of millions of government money from a previous Forest Infrastructure Repair Program.

“With yields declining due to over-logging, bushfire risk increasing, weeds proliferating, dieback spreading, water yields declining, massive releases of CO2 and reductions in the ability of forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere, the astronomical costs of logging public native forests are unaffordable.

“Rather than subsidizing degradation of our public native forests, if we protect them we can turn this loss into an economic benefit to the community from increased recreation, tourism, water yields and the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere.

“With pine plantations already providing 91% of our sawlogs, and a proliferation of manufactured timber products able to satisfy our timber needs, there is no justification for continuing to degrade public native forests” Mr. Pugh said.

*The FCNSW 2023/24 Biomaterial Report identifies they logged 9,484 ha of native forests.

The FCNSW 2023/24 Annual Report is at: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/tp/files/190170/Forestry%20Corporation%20of%20NSW%202023-24%20Annual%20Report.pdf