MEDIA RELEASE 27 August 2024

The North East Forest Alliance is concerned that the NSW Government’s recently announced Independent Forestry Panel is not independent and is calling for the appointment of a forest ecologist to provide some balance.

The three member Independent Forestry Panel can not be considered independent when Peter Duncan AM was once the Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Corporation and Mick Veitch was previously the ALP’s shadow Forestry Minister, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“We would welcome a truly independent and impartial review of logging of public native forests in NSW as the evidence is that it is neither economically nor ecologically sustainable.

MEDIA RELEASE 7 August 2024

Pugh’s Frog (Philoria pughi) has recently been uplisted to nationally Endangered, with logging identified as a threat, leading the North East Forest Alliance to call upon the NSW and Commonwealth Environment Ministers to immediately change the logging rules to protect its habitat from logging.

Pugh's Frog (Credit Stephen Mahony)

MEDIA RELEASE 12 September 2023

The NSW Government’s announcement to protect Koala Hubs within the proposed Great Koala National Park from logging is welcomed as an important, but small, step forward, though if there is a genuine intent to save Koalas from extinction the Government needs to protect all Koala Hubs across NSW and reinstate the requirement for pre-logging surveys to identify and protect all important Koala habitat, according to the North East Forest Alliance.

MEDIA RELEASE 29 February 2024

The NSW Government has released a discussion paper Reviewing the NSW Koala Strategy and is seeking community input on current koala conservation actions.

The NSW Government’s 2021 Koala Strategy identifies that the highest priority to avoid the extinction of Koalas in the wild by 2050 is to protect their habitat, to this end they have allocated $71 million to buy private properties and implement conservation agreements over up to 22,000 hectares.

So far they have bought 10,000 ha of land to add to national parks and entered conservation agreements over 7,700 ha of private land.

MEDIA RELEASE 29 February 2024

The NSW Government has released a discussion paper Reviewing the NSW Koala Strategy and is seeking community input on current koala conservation actions.

The NSW Government’s 2021 Koala Strategy identifies that the highest priority to avoid the extinction of Koalas in the wild by 2050 is to protect their habitat, to this end they have allocated $71 million to buy private properties and implement conservation agreements over up to 22,000 hectares.

So far they have bought 10,000 ha of land to add to national parks and entered conservation agreements over 7,700 ha of private land.

MEDIA RELEASE 11 February 2024

NEFA has called NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe a hypocrite for saying she wants to protect Koalas and save them from extinction, while at the same time refusing to do anything to stop the Forestry Corporation logging Nationally Important Koala Areas in Braemar and Myrtle State Forests south of Casino, which will compound the severe impacts of the 2019-20 bushfires and threatens the extinction of this population.   

Satellite images show logging is progressing rapidly in Braemar and Myrtle State Forests, with over 140ha in Myrtle (14% of the loggable area) and 70ha (37% of the loggable area) in Braemar logged.

This Koala population was devastated in the 2019-20 bushfires, with over 70% of Koalas killed, though is recovering with most koala habitat now being utilised. Logging is now compounding impacts on the recovering Koalas and threatening the extinction of this population, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“NEFA have written to Penny Sharpe on numerous occasions pleading with her to intervene to save these Koalas, providing her with numerous reports and survey results that clearly demonstrate the exceptional importance of these forests for Koalas, yet she refuses to intervene. 

This Koala survived the bushfires, now its home is being logged