The Great Southern Forest National Park campaign is NPA’s latest and one of our largest-ever proposals for a new national park. It aims to protect the public native forests of southeastern NSW, along with the gliders, owls, potoroos, and other species that call these forests home.
For far too long, the public forests of the southeast have been decimated by the woodchip industry and unsustainable forestry activities. These forests sit on the brink of ecological collapse, and it is long past time to give them the protection they deserve. At stake is the future of more than 400,000 hectares of vulnerable native forest.
Bringing logging to an end is essential, but it is not enough to secure the future of the forests. At the core of NPA is the conviction that the conservation gold standard is permanent protection as a national park, nature reserve, or other type of reserve under the National Parks and Wildlife Act.
The simple objective of the Great Southern Forest National Park campaign is to build the case for the establishment of the largest forest reserve in NSW history.
The campaign has begun with a meticulous investigation of the conservation values of public native forests across southeastern NSW. It employs international best practice ‘Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative’ assessment techniques, including the intensive assessment of threatened species habitats developed for NPA’s Great Koala National Park proposal.
The technical assessment will describe the conservation values of southeastern forests, including vegetation communities, threatened species, threatened ecological communities, habitat corridors, catchment values, old growth, rainforest, long-unburnt vegetation types, historic sites, and places of Aboriginal cultural significance. The assessment is based on the analysis of publicly available datasets supplemented by best practice citizen science surveys.
The campaign will also demonstrate how the Southern Forest National Park will enhance recreational, social, and economic opportunities for local and regional communities.
NPA is keenly aware that this proposal rests on the shoulders of decades of tireless campaigning for these magnificent forests. We thank and respect those visionaries and are determined to build on their work to finally achieve permanent protection for these precious forests.