Australia: Surprised logging last Native Forests in NSW is unsustainable?
A report by the NSW Auditor General, Peter Achterstraat, has found that logging practices in northern NSW native forests are unsustainable and unprofitable. “The native forests managed by Forests NSW on the North Coast are being cut faster than they are growing back. This will eventually result in a reduction in the available timber,” Mr Achterstraat said.
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The report also revealed that native forest operations in NSW ran at a loss of more than $14 million in the 2007-08 financial year. “I can only see this loss increasing as Forests NSW continues to look for new sources of hardwood timber and the costs of harvest and haulage increase,” he said. The timber industry’s peak body, the NSW Forest Products Association, responded by saying that if the costs of environmental management and compliance were stripped, then the industry would be in a healthy state. Susie Russell from the North East Forest Alliance said the report validates what the Alliance has been saying for many years. “The logging industry in north-east NSW has no long-term future. Forests NSW has failed to check its estimated timber supplies against actual volumes obtained, or to update its estimates based on areas that have already been logged as required by various Forest Agreements…
“It is now abundantly clear that our forests are not in the ‘safe hands’ we are told, nor are they managed for the long-term benefit of the people of NSW. They should be managed as carbon sinks, biodiversity stores and water reservoirs. Mining them for timber is no longer acceptable,” Ms Russell said.
A full copy of the Auditor General’s report is available online at http://www.audit.nsw.gov.au
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