Greenpeace Australia Pacific
By Bellingen Shire News
A strategic assessment of native forestry across NSW, covering forests within the North East Regional Forest Agreement area that takes in state forests around Bellingen and Dorrigo, has begun, with public consultation open until 16 October.
Bellingen and Dorrigo, has begun, with public consultation open until 16 October.
Led by the NSW Natural Resources Commission, the assessment will examine public native forestry, plantation and private native forestry operations to determine whether they meet Commonwealth environmental standards under the reformed Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. It must be completed by 1 July 2027, when the state’s Regional Forest Agreement exemptions from those laws expire.
NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and Minister for Agriculture and Regional NSW Tara Moriarty announced the process, with the Commonwealth providing up to $8.5 million to support the work, Federal Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt said.
Environmental group Greenpeace Australia Pacific has welcomed the assessment as a chance to fix what it calls a broken system, while calling for it to deliver stronger protections for native forests.
“This is the Federal Government’s chance to fix a broken system that has enabled the destruction of NSW’s precious forests for far too long,” Greenpeace Nature Policy Lead Adele Chasson said.
Chasson said native forest logging was pushing threatened species including koalas, greater gliders and glossy black cockatoos “towards extinction,” and described the state’s Regional Forest Agreement system as having “failed” to provide oversight.
Forestry Corporation NSW, the state-owned agency that manages forestry operations under the Regional Forest Agreement system, has not issued comment specific to the assessment or to Greenpeace’s criticisms. The agency’s broader public position, outlined in its own material on its separate softwood plantation program, describes a continuous cycle of harvesting and replanting intended to maintain a sustainable, renewable timber supply.
“It’s time for the Federal Government to deliver the protection that forests urgently need,” Chasson said. “These forests have been cared for by First Nations people for tens of thousands of years. It’s critical we protect them.”