The New South Wales Government will not put a stop to native forest logging despite an online petition with more than 20,000 signatures. Source: Timberbiz
The petition, circulated by the Brooman State Forest Conservation Group, included called for an immediate pause to logging and the collation of a plan to shift away from the practise while securing jobs.
The petition was originally going to be presented on 15 September but was pushed back one month following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
In a statement, a Forestry Corporation of NSW spokeswoman said native forest timber harvesting was heavily regulated to balance the community’s need for timber with protecting important environmental features on the forest landscape.
“Since the 2019-20 bushfires Forestry Corporation has adopted additional environmental safeguards above these requirements and these measures remain in place today,” the spokeswoman said.
“South Brooman State Forest has been a managed forest for more than 100 years, which means that for more than a century renewable timber has been continually harvested from parts of this forest and each time the forest has been regrown.’’
Minister for Agriculture Dugald Saunders told the ABC that while 20,000 signatures represented a lot of people, the NSW government needed to balance the interests of more than seven million citizens in its management of public assets, such as state forests.
Mr Saunders said there were “thousands of jobs dependent on the industry continuing”, with 22,000 people employed by the state’s forest and wood product industries.
