James Sherwood, Conservation Campaigner
On September 11, the Minister for the Environment announced the suspension of logging operations from Koala Hubs within the proposed area of the Great Koala National Park. The hubs cover about 5% of the 176,000 hectares that will be assessed in the creation of the park. Koala Hubs are critical multi-generational resident koala populations and their habitats and 42% of the recorded koala sightings in state forests have occurred in them since 2000.
Whilst on the surface this was a positive step forward for the creation of the park, it highlighted that the Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) and the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) were not on the same page with respect to koala conservation. All 106 Koala Hubs where logging was suspended coincided with the Coastal IFOA native forest boundaries, which is managed by DPE. Whilst all Koala Hubs that overlapped native hardwood plantation boundaries, which are managed by DPI, received no protection. This equates to around 1,200 hectares of critical koala habitat still at risk of being clear-felled, with most of it occurring in the coastal forests that possess the greatest tourism potential for the Great Koala National Park.
Additionally, slow progress with respect to the creation of the Great Koala National Park has seen critical parts of the park logged since Labor took office back in March. Koala Hubs in Newry, Boambee and Orara East State Forests have already been logged, leaving the conservation community furious. AS I write this, only two weeks after the decision to protect Koala Hubs in the proposed park, Forestry Corporation has commenced clearfelling compartment 14 in Pine Creek State Forest, a compartment that is almost entirely made up of Koala Hub.
Pine Creek State Forest sits adjacent to one of the state’s most important koala populations and acts as a critical corridor between Bongil Bongil National Park and the rest of the Great Koala National Park. The decision not to protect Koala Hubs in the plantations has left almost half of the Koala Hubs in Pine Creek State Forest at risk of being clearfelled, many within the next 12 months. These koala populations will likely be wiped out unless a more cautious approach is taken, with a similar fate awaiting koala populations in Tuckers Nob, where a number of koala hubs were also excluded from the suspended list.
If the government is serious about creating a world class protected area that will save the koala from extinction in NSW, it needs to take a more precautionary approach, by protecting the remaining koala hubs and urgently suspending logging operations within the GKNP assessment area.
