17th October 2024
A new report, Nature Negative: How governments are pushing greater gliders towards extinction, reveals that current regulations for logging operations amount to a "licence to kill" endangered species.
The report by Forest Alliance NSW (FANSW) profiles four state forests where community surveys were done before logging operations: Tallaganda, Styx River, Bulga and Tuggalo. The report found that community surveys in those forests were able to identify up to 10 times the number of endangered greater glider den trees, than Forestry Corporation NSW (FCNSW) surveys.
The report estimates that less than 1% of den trees for endangered greater gliders are identified by FCNSW in their pre-logging surveys, calling into question whether the regulations are intending to protect endangered species or protect native hardwood supply.
"Something is clearly wrong with how Forestry Corporation is operating if the community can find five to ten times the number of gliders that Forestry Corporation can," said FANSW spokesperson Justin Field.
Justin Field Forest Alliance NSW spokesperson says:
"There is no doubt that a large proportion of the 825 greater gliders that the community has identified in these forests will be killed as a result of Forestry Corporation's hopelessly inadequate procedures."
"It's time for the Minns' Government to step up to save these species from an industry that has proven it cannot operate in our native forests without sending species towards extinction.
"The State Government is knowingly complicit in this destruction whilst it refuses to halt logging in these areas."
"The community shouldn't have to step up to do the work our State agencies are failing to do.
"Time after time, the Forestry Corporation has been found guilty of breaking the law. It's time for the Minns' Government to step up to save these species from oblivion."
Susie Russell, Save Bulga Forest spokesperson says:
"The message is falling on deaf ears. This Government is wiping out thriving communities of Greater Gliders while suggesting they have a 'Nature Positive' agenda.
"Noone knows what they mean by Nature Positive if it doesn't include protecting the known homes of our most iconic and endangered fauna.
"The Greater Glider just won a competition for Marsupial of the Year. The public are getting to know and love this special and unique animal, but there are several Greater Glider hotspots currently being logged and most of the Greater Gliders get zero protection from NSW and Commonwealth environment laws."
Ms Russell has been in one of the surveyed forests, Bulga State Forest. Locals from the Bulga Plateau have been trying to convince the NSW Government that if they actually want to save Greater Gliders and Koalas from extinction, they need to stop destroying their homes. Logging has begun and there have been 16 arrests to date of people attempting to defend the glider trees.
"We know these endangered animals are in this part of the forest, we know that many of them will die if logging continues."
Dr Kita Ashman, WWF-Australia ecologist says:
"This report shows that Forestry Corporation's surveys are laughably inadequate. Survey methods must be updated to ensure greater gliders and their den trees are identified and strongholds are formally protected.
"Places like Tallaganda, Styx River, Bulga and Tuggalo are essential to the persistence of greater gliders in NSW. They generally stay cool and wet and protect gliders from the extremes of climate change. If we continue to knock down these forests, we're locking in extinction for this species.
"Greater glider numbers have crashed in the past 20 years. We don't have time to keep getting this wrong."
Andrew Wong, Wilderness Australia's Operations Manager:
"Community survey efforts for greater gliders have far exceeded those of FCNSW. This shows that FCNSW make little effort when it comes to finding greater gliders, a fact that the current logging rules enable."
Key findings of the report include:
- Community survey data indicates that greater gliders are only persisting in certain locations - mostly cool, wet areas of refugia - and declining rapidly elsewhere.
- A major driver of this decline is the destruction of habitat by the native forest logging industry. Other drivers are loss of suitable den trees from bushfires, and increasing overnight maximum temperatures.
- Within the four State Forests assessed, community groups have identified 170 greater glider den trees, over ten times more than the 15 that were found by Forestry Corporation NSW (FCNSW).
- Over 91% of den trees within the report's survey area were identified as a result of community efforts.
- We estimate less than 1% of den trees are found using the requirements of the Site Specific Biodiversity Condition (SSBC) under current logging protocols in high density areas.
- Current NSW logging rules require logging exclusion zones to be applied to FCNSW's sightings of greater gliders. Yet the 825 greater gliders found by community groups will receive no protection under this same rule.
