In a shocking week for minimising the concerns of conservationists (on the back of news of plans to defund the EDO and to override environmental checks and balances for Olympic sites), the Crisafulli government has announced the potential return of native forest logging in Queensland.

As former members of the now disbanded Native Timber Advisory Panel, NPAQ is concerned that the Crisafulli Government’s new Timber Supply Chain Ministerial Roundtable is composed entirely of groups with a vested interest in logging native timber.

In April, Professor David Lindenmayer, author of The Forest Wars, presented peer-reviewed evidence at NPAQ’s Romeo Lahey Memorial Lecture, showing that:

• logging native forest is not cost effective compared to timber production from sustainably grown and managed forestry
• logging native forest drives biodiversity decline through loss of habitat, disturbance, and removal of crucial tree hollows
• logged native forest experiences more intense and frequent fire in the long term than unlogged native forest and recovers less quickly, and
• native forest logging supports fewer jobs at higher per job cost than most industries, as it is heavily subsidised.

Despite these facts, no independent conservation or community representatives will sit at the table that will help develop the Queensland Future Timber Plan (QFTP). It’s not even clear whether there will be any consultation with the conservation sector or the community more broadly.

The QFTP is being pitched as a way to supply timber for one million homes by 2044 — but at what cost? Queensland’s native forests are highly valued by local communities, for their social, cultural and recreational value and their contribution to both wildlife conservation and human health and wellbeing.

Ending logging in our state forests is a must to prevent further declines for populations of endangered koalas, greater gliders, spotted-tailed quolls and glossy black-cockatoos. If we want to end extinctions, we must end native forest logging, not just in Queensland but around the nation.

Watch this space as NPAQ formulates a policy position with the conservation, tourism and recreation sectors to advocate strongly and collectively for the end of native forest logging in Queensland.

Read more at https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/102572