Wilderness Society Response to Reported End to Victorian Native Forest Logging

• Reported end to industrial logging in native forests by 2030 but should be sooner
• Native wood volumes are unsustainable due to overlogging and bushfire
• Victorians just want their forests protected

Reports of an end to native forest logging by 2030 are a welcome indication that the Andrews government is finally acting on the crises in Victoria’s native forests. Reports also show that the Andrews government appears to have again prioritised Japanese pulp giant, Nippon, over Victorian forest and community health, and over decent, safe and secure jobs in sustainable industries.

The consistent feedback from Victorians is that they want their native forests protected from logging. But according to reports from the ABC, the Andrews government intends more largesse for an unpopular and damaging industry that is sending wildlife to extinction, and making climate change worse through dangerous carbon emissions. Industry’s own research shows there are now fewer than 1,000 jobs in the native forest logging sector.

Wilderness Society Victorian Campaigns Manager Amelia Young says: “Allowing Nippon-owned Australian Paper to continue to log the Critically Endangered Mountain Ash forests for another ten years damages Victoria’s viability in a changing climate. 

“Industrial foresters just want to take, take, take. This evening’s reports that government will keep them logging in special native forests for another decade -- that’s ten years too long. Victorians want their forests protected because they’re concerned about wildlife facing extinction, water security, and climate change. 

“It’s important that the state government support the logging industry, and its workers, through inevitable change, and it must also immediately protect special forests, stop logging in old growth forests, and prevent extinction of wildlife found nowhere else on Earth, including the Leadbeater’s possum and the Greater Glider.”

“Keeping the decades-old native forest logging woodchippers in native forest ecosystems just doesn’t make sense. After years of over-logging and the impacts of bushfire the simple maths don’t add up -- yet the Andrews government appears to be continuing with unsustainable and unattainable wood volumes. Furthermore, between now and 2030 there will be two more state elections, meaning that a 2030 end date may yet turn to permanent obfuscation. 

For more information: Amelia Young 0404 074 577 

For media assistance: Tim Beshara 0437 878 786