News Alert:
How 2009 ended
With no apparent reason, other than to progress koala extinction the NSW Government is reportedly planning business as usual when work resumes in the New Year. This work has begun and the Department of the Environment for Climate Change (DECC) has deleted from their website all information about the koala surveys over the past 2 years. The NPWS Regional manager Tim Shepard is reported as saying " . . now we have a good idea of where Koalas live . . we are using this information to help us plan our hazard reduction programs"(Coastal Custodians, Nov/Dec 2009). Also, a rumor has spread from the Wapengo Watershed Association claiming Forests NSW will begin the year logging koala habitat in Mumbulla State Forest. While the source of this proposal remains unconfirmed, it does confirm some suspicions. Notably that logging is to be suspended at Bermagui so the negative impacts of uncontrollable wildfire in logging slash adjacent to the town, can be reduced over summer. Killing koalas is, apparently, OK.LOGGING BEGINS IN COMPARTMENT 2001 IN BERMAGUI STATE FOREST. Forests NSW have approved logging in 89% of the compartment as opposed to the maximum of 60% allowed for in their legal approvals. Desperate to maintain timber supplies this logging confirms the statement from Forests NSW manager Mr Martin Linehan that "We can do what we want when we want".
FIFTEEN months after the NSW Government released a map that is inconsistent with the outcomes of the pilot koala surveys, {1.75Mb} available at ( http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/threatenedspecies/koala_survey_results_SEForests.pdf ). Koala expert Dr Steve Phillips has been interviewed ABC local radio about the uncertain fate for koalas at a national level and the last few Five Forests koalas. An audio file of the interview (13.5 Mb) can be downloaded from http://blogs.abc.net.au/files/koala-crisis.mp3.
CURRENT LOGGING IN BERMAGUI STATE FOREST INCONSISTENT WITH THE IFOA AND THE AUSTRALIAN FORESTRY STANDARD - Four arrests have been made as a result of Forests NSW claims, but examination of the operational map, the prohibited area notice and the logging plan(s) for Cpt 2002 demonstrate the logging is outside the IFOA. Critical koala habitat is being destroyed while the NSW police support Forests NSW's illegal logging.
September 2009: Logging in Bermagui
Logging began in Compartment 2002 of Bermagui State Forest on Thursday September 10. The logging plans (download from resources page) for the compartment are not an accurate or honest representation of soil, flora, water or roads in the compartment. Details of concerns about the operations, also available on the resources page, have been passed onto the NSW police and NCS International.Forests NSW can log this critical koala habitat on the only soil landscape known to have koalas because they have been able to abuse the process based on unproven claims about koalas in the south east (see comments on EPBC Act and RFA review, Resources page).
Forest review finds big problems
A community conducted review of the Eden Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) between the Commonwealth and NSW State Governments has found that forests in the southeast are being exploited at rate that far exceeds the limits of ecological sustainability and those of the relevant legislation.Community representative on the Forest Resources and Management Systems Committee for the Eden assessment process and review author Mr Robert Bertram believes that the RFA has failed to achieve the legislated ecological milestones and this failure has negative implications at local, regional and global levels.
“ The review analyses Annual reports from the NSW Forestry Commission that indicate dramatically reduced timber yields of 60% for sawlogs and 40% for pulp logs and a massive escalation in areas being logged, such that over the past five years nearly 50% of all State forests in the Eden region have been scheduled for logging.
“These outcomes confirm that extensive canopy dieback and the associated death of millions of trees in the southeast is having a significant impact on the native forest logging industry. It is apparent that some 50,000 hectares of additional forests have been covertly handed over to ensure wood supplies.
“These additional forests include areas that the Forestry Commission failed to declare during the Eden assessment and vast tracts of forests on the tablelands, that have similarly not been assessed. It is apparent that these Crown forests are being logged with the assistance of significant public subsidies and at a rate that greatly exceeds the requirements of the RFA.
However, of greatest concern is that the RFAs are designed to ignore the science that explains the decline of eucalyptus forests and it’s relationship to timber supplies, species extinction, catchment degradation and climate change. It seems that Government departments and other publicly funded organizations are either threatened or ‘paid off’ to ignore or suppress relevant information. The success of the RFA has been to demonstrate that ignorance and greed has overcome credible science, accountability and intergenerational equity.”
The review titled ‘The effects of deforestation on timber volumes, areas logged and associated climate change issues: A community review of the Eden Regional Forest Agreement” can be downloaded at the Friends of the Five Forests website: http://www.fiveforests.net/resources
Be alert, alarmed and ready to act!!!
Forests NSW has compartment 2002 in the Bermagui State Forest on its worklist. We will advise if logging begins or seems imminent! Be ready to act!
Friends of Five Forests and their supporters will have to mount yet another campaign to have the logging stopped if Black Lagoon and Meads Bay are to be protected in accordance with the sanctuary zone classification they have been given as part of the Batemans Marine Park, and if the very few remaining koalas are to have any chance of survival.
This large compartment of predominantly spotted gums is a significant part of the catchment for Narira Creek and Black Lagoon, which link into Meads Bay.
The Batemans Marine Park provides for the highest level of protection of Black Lagoon and Meads Bay as sanctuary Zones. Logging can be expected to lead to further serious siltation of the Creek, and to damage plant and fish life in both the Lagoon and Meads Bay.
The Park zone plan does not come into operation until June 2007.
Pre-emptive action by Forests NSW to log compartment 2002 in the interim would make a mockery of the Marine Park zoning.
The compartment contains areas of significant koala habitat. It is also next to part of the Kooraban National Park that contains the only koalas in this immediate region. Both this area and compartment 2002 are occupied by the Five Forests koala population, which was nominated as endangered some years ago.
NSW Government release of a report by consultants on a Koala Management Plan for the region is now well overdue.
Friends of Five Forests and their supporters will have to mount yet another campaign to have the logging stopped if Black Lagoon and Meads Bay are to be protected in accordance with the sanctuary zone classification they have been given as part of the Batemans Marine Park, and if the very few remaining koalas are to have any chance of survival.
Recent Events
On Sunday March 20 2005 more than 150 people from many areas of the Bega Valley Shire and beyond, attended a meeting at the Murrah Hall to hear about logging operations being implemented by non-adaptive land managers in the coastal forests around Bermagui.
The meeting was unanimous in calling for an immediate halt to all logging operations in the Five Forests .
In late May 2005 the NSW Forestry Commission breached the conditions of the Regional Forest Agreements and their Threatened Species licence when they started to log critical Koala habitat in Cuttagee catchment part of Murrah State Forest.
As a result of community actions the logging crew pulled the operation four days after it started and after FNSW arrested two people.
Several actions are being planned and implemented that are aimed at stopping the further destruction of our flora, fauna and degradation coastal catchments and implementing sustainable forest management.
- See Towards Adaptive Forest Management in the Bateman Bioregion - a draft research paper for public comment.
The second stage has been the production of management and research proposals that take a holistic approach to natural resource management. The management and research proposals blend appropriate restoration forestry with world's best practise and public accountability.
- See Five Forests Management and Research Proposals - draft management and research proposals for public comment. (395KB Word Doc.)
As a result of the communities efforts and after failing to find anyone in DEC prepared to accept the mission, the NSW State Government has recently employed consultants to gather community opinions for possible input into a Koala Management Framework.
Sign our petition supporting best practise forest management
Download and sign our new petition to end woodchip logging and introduce accountability and credible science to assist in restoring the Five Forests. Please post your signed petition to PO Box 161, Bermagui, NSW 2546.