After finding that Forests NSW are still not bothering to search for Koala scats before logging and have logged yet another Koala High Use Area in Royal Camp SF, NEFA have written to the Ministers (for the third time) asking them to justify the continued illegal logging.
MEDIA RELEASE 25/9/2012
The North East Forest Alliance have asked the NSW Ministers for Environment, Robyn Parker. and Primary Industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, to justify their determination to allow illegal logging of Koala High Use Areas to continue in Royal Camp State Forest, 16 kilometres south-west of Casino.
Spokesperson for NEFA, Dailan Pugh, said that an inspection on Sunday of recent logging in Royal Camp State Forest revealed that Forests NSW are still not searching for Koala scats (fecal pellets) and are consequently continuing to log Koala High Use Areas.
“Forests NSW are prohibited from logging within 20m of Koala High Use Areas by their Threatened Species Licence.
“Forests NSW are legally required to thoroughly search for Koala scats in advance of logging in order to identify Koala High Use Areas for protection.
“On Sunday we found another Koala High Use Area that had recently been logged. This is the second Koala High Use Area we have found logged since we first asked the Ministers for Environment and Primary Industries to intervene to stop it.
“Of the 103 potential Koala feed trees we searched for scats only 7 had been searched before. It appears that these were searched by the Environment Protection Agency in a token post-logging audit.
“It is clear that despite our repeated appeals to the Ministers, Forests NSW are still not undertaking the required searches for Koala scats and continuing to illegally log Koala High Use Areas.
“It is outrageous that the Ministers responsible for implementing laws to protect Koalas are knowingly allowing Forests NSW, a public agency, to continue to flout them” Mr. Pugh said.
NEFA’s letter to the Ministers is available at Ministers for the Environment and Forestry_Royal Camp Koalas_3. The NEFA Audit of Royal Camp State Forest is available at http://nefa.org.au/audit/RoyalCamp/NEFA_Audit_Royal_Camp_SF.pdf