This article from The Conversation is timely in the lead-up to the local government elections in the Bellingen Shire. As the NSW Government owned Forest Corporation logs more and more of our country, pushing more and more species to the brink of extinction, we clearly need to start doing things differently. The Greens support a sustainable logging sector focussing on plantations. The NSW Plantations and Reafforestation Regulation Codes (2001 and 2010) have no specific prohibition of the conversion of native forest to plantation. These codes need to be modified.
And that’s where we have some of our greatest concerns. A simple change in regulation has allowed small patches of native forest, contained within plantations, to be logged. Increased mechanisation has allowed logging operations on increasingly steeper ground increasing the risk of erosion and silts into our waterways. The proximity of logging to our towns and communities increases the risk of fire to those towns and communities.
We can meet our timber needs in other ways. It’s simple. The Greens have the policies, the will and the commitment.
(More information at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2024.107179.)