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.