Reprieve for New South Wales forests

Forest and Bird, Volume 23, Issue 1, 1 February 1992, Page 7

Reprieve for New South Wales forests

THE OLD-GROWTH eucalypt forests of New South Wales as well as the state’s endangered wildlife have received a much-needed reprieve from logging. A decision of the NSW Land and Environment Court in September was damning in its criticism of the Forestry Commussion’s logging practices which were found to contravene the wildlife protection provisions of the National Parks and Wildlife Act.

Environmentalists had brought an action in the court to stop logging and road construction in the Chaelundi State Forest, part of the Guy Fawkes wilderness in the north-east of the state, on the grounds that 23 endangered animal species known to inhabit the forest would be "disturbed or injured" by the Forestry Commission. The area has the highest-known concentration of arboreal mammals in New South Wales and was described by the court as a "veritable forest-dependent Zoo". In a state where the great bulk of logging is carried out in native forests, the commission claimed that the decision threatened "‘an imminent shut-down of all forestry activities" and appealed against the ruling. The appeal was lost and the commission has now called on the NSW Government to amend the National Parks and Wildlife Act to remove any restrictions on its logging operations. The government, however, lacks an effective majority in the state parliament and in December was forced to accept an opposition-spon-sored Endangered Species Bill which, to the great chagrin of the Forestry Commission, gives the National Parks and Wildlife Service the power to approve or refuse logging applications in state forests where endangered species might be killed or disturbed. The new legislation will expire, however, at the end of 1992 when a comprehensive review of the conflicts between forestry and conservation in native forests will have been completed. #

Forest and Bird is a member of the International Council for Bird Preservation and is the ICBP’s delegate in the South Pacific.