MEDIA RELEASE 8 May 2026

The Stakeholder Consultation Report for NSW’s Forestry Industry Action Plan (FIAP) raises more questions than it answers, though with 70% of submissions expressing support for ending native forestry it confirms that most people want an end to this archaic and destructive industry.

The Stakeholder Consultation Report by the Independent Forestry Panel was intended to summarise community attitudes towards public native forestry as an input to the NSW Forestry Industry Action Plan (FIAP). (1)

“This report demonstrates that a logging industry review is not appropriate for deciding whether we end logging of public native forests and instead protect them for wildlife, carbon sequestration, recreation, tourism and water”, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

MEDIA RELEASE 22 April 2026

North East Forest Alliance is calling for the NSW Government to stop logging State Forests and protect them as National Parks in light of the latest visitation statistics which show that national parks attract millions of visitors to regional areas, injecting billions of dollars into regional economies and generating thousands of jobs.

The Government identifies that the 65.6m visits to NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) parks last year injected $19.5 billion into the state’s economy and supported 62,000 jobs.

National parks in north-east NSW, north from Gosford, attracted 14.9 million visits last year. With 22.8% of NSW’s visitation, on a pro-rata basis, national parks in north-east NSW are responsible for injecting around $4.4 billion into the regional economy and supporting some 14,100 regional jobs.

MEDIA RELEASE 13 March 2026

NEFA welcomes the Forestry Corporation being order to pay $450,000 for forest restoration for their illegal logging of six giant, and three hollow-bearing, trees in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest, near Dorrigo, in 2020

“These illegally logged trees are over 300 years old, priceless relicts predating European colonization, they are irreplaceable, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

“In today’s judgement in the Land and Environment Court, in lieu of paying a fine to the Government Justice Pain ordered $450,000 to be paid to the Yurruungga Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) to carry out Court approved restorative justice actions, including a healing ceremony, biocultural site repair plans, cultural mapping and the training of rangers as Gumbaynggirr Guardians.

“Court costs have been reserved, so the final payout is likely to be far greater.

Illegally felled giant tree, over 300 years old, and left to rot

MEDIA RELEASE 9 March 2026

The Commonwealth and State Government’s recently released maps of national priories for protection to honour their commitment under the Global Biodiversity Framework to protect  30% of Australia by 2030, identifying State Forests in north-east NSW as amongst the very highest priorities, the question is will they now heed their science and protect these forests.

In recognition of the world’s rapidly worsening biodiversity crisis, Commonwealth and State Governments have committed to the Global Biodiversity Framework target to protect 30% of Australia by 2030.

In accordance with the National Roadmap for achieving 30by30 the governments have released maps showing priority areas for protection, identifying State Forests in north-east NSW as amongst the highest priorities in Australia for areas with important biodiversity and ecosystem values and relatively low levels of protection, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

NEFA have reviewed the 30by30 criteria and maps, along with supporting information: Stopping logging north-east NSW’s public forests is an important step to meet Australia’s goal to protect 30% of its lands by 2030.

MEDIA RELEASE 6 February 2026

A review of the NSW Government’s Koala baseline assessments for the North East Forest Alliance has found the Government’s models of Koala densities broad and inaccurate, with cleared paddocks near Kyogle claimed to have higher densities of Koalas than the Great Koala National Park, resulting in greatly inflated population estimates for NSW.

Photo: A paddock to the north-east of Kyogle, claimed to be some of the best Koala habitat in NSW with a Koala density of 0.36/ha, higher than the best habitat in the Great Koala National Park.

MEDIA RELEASE 11 December 2025

In her media release of 11 December 2025 Environment Minister Penny Sharpe states

The NSW Government has completed its first comprehensive statewide koala survey, providing the most accurate picture to date of where koalas live and how populations are distributed across the state.

…

Populations in NSW continue to face significant risks, including habitat loss and fragmentation, climate impacts, disease and vehicle strikes. These threats are expected to intensify over coming decades, underscoring the importance of protecting key habitat and wildlife corridors.

Now that the NSW Government has undertaken new modelling that identifies key koala habitat, they need to stop logging it and ensure it is protected from clearing, according to North East Forest Alliance spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

Logged preferred Koala feed trees in key koala habitat in Braemar SF

MEDIA RELEASE 2 December 2025

The Forestry Corporation’s loss of $32 million from its hardwood logging operations last year, and their ongoing failure to honour Wood Supply Agreements, shows that logging public native forests is an economic basket-case and not a viable business, according to NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

“Over the past 4 years the Forestry Corporation lost $85 million from logging native hardwood forests and hardwood plantations, despite receiving tens of millions in taxpayer equity injections. On top of this sawmillers received tens of millions in Government payments for transport subsidies and for mill upgrades   

“Last year it cost $4,330 a hectare to log 7,390 ha of public native forests. Taxpayers are paying an exorbitant cost to subsidise private sawmillers to log native forests.

MEDIA RELEASE 16 September 2025

Conservation Groups Welcome Independent Planning Commission’s Rejection of Proposal to Increase Landclearing for Electricity

North East Forest Alliance and North Coast Environment Council welcome the IPC’s rejection of Verdant Earth's proposal to restart the closed coal-fired Redbank power station, using trees obtained from clearing more than 20,000 ha of land a year, to spew 1.3 million tonnes of CO₂ into the atmosphere.

On the September 15, the Independent Planning Commission refused the development application from Verdant Earth Technologies Ltd to restart the Redbank Power Station at Warkworth using biomass instead of coal tailings as fuel.

“Burning forests produces higher CO₂ emissions than burning coal, so it is madness to replace coal with wood to generate electricity as it undermines our transition to a low carbon economy”, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

MEDIA RELEASE 7 September 2025

North East Forest Alliance and North Coast Environment Council welcome the Minns Government’s decision to place a moratorium on the full Great Koala National Park while they resolve the issue of obtaining carbon credits for creating it as a national park.

Finalisation of the Great Koala National Park will be a historic step forward in forest conservation, on par with Wran’s  historic 1982 Rainforest Decision that protected 120,000 ha of forests in north-east NSW and ultimately led to the protection of all rainforests, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

“NEFA thanks Environment Minister Penny Sharpe for maintaining this commitment at the last election, and undertaking a robust environmental assessment. We trust that she will now see this through to fruition.

“This park will protect 12,000 Koalas and enable their populations to recover as their feed trees regrow. This is the sort of action we need if we want to double their population in NSW.

MEDIA RELEASE 27 February 2025

The loggers are once again spreading false information in their attempts to stop the Great Koala National Park (GKNP), this time by claiming that the assessment of Koalas was based upon Koala scat searches when they know it was based upon comprehensive drone surveys that identified actual Koalas.

For the GKNP repeated night time drone surveys were undertaken using infrared at 169 59ha sites to identify individual Koalas, involving 4,000 kms of drone flight by a team of 26 drone pilots.

The results of this unprecedented survey intensity were extrapolated to map the density of Koalas across the GKNP, identifying a total population of 12,000 Koalas, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.