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 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 9 April 2022

The NSW Government’s Koala Strategy released today will do little to turn around their extinction trajectory as it is not stopping logging and clearing of Koala habitat which, along with climate heating, are the main drivers of their demise.

“The Strategy proposes nothing to redress the logging of Koala habitat on public lands where at best 5-10 small potential Koala feed trees per hectare need to be protected in core Koala habitat, with the only other requirement being to wait for a Koala to leave before cutting down its tree” NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“We know that Koalas preferentially choose larger individuals of a limited variety of tree species for feeding, and losses of these trees will reduce populations. So protecting and restoring feed and roost trees is a prerequisite for allowing populations to grow on public lands.

“The most important and extensive Koala habitat we know of in NSW is in the proposed Great Koala National Park, encompassing 175,000 hectares of State Forests south of Grafton and west of Coffs Harbour.

“Similarly on the Richmond River lowlands the most important and extensive area known is the proposed Sandy Creek Koala Park, encompassing 7,000 ha of State Forests south of Casino.