Dr Michelle Freeman, Science Policy Officer
This opinion piece was originally submitted to the Sydney Morning Herald.
With the State Government poised to announce the creation of a Great Koala National Park, a unique opportunity emerges to balance the establishment of protected koala habitats and the preservation of state forests, offering a win for positive environmental, social, cultural, and economic outcomes.
Whether managed as national park or state forest, science-based active forest management – the thoughtful and deliberate tending of forests – will be crucial to maintaining and enhancing Australia's forests, responding to climate change and conserving koala habitat.
Simply creating a national park does not guarantee biodiversity conservation.
There is no doubt when managed well, national parks benefit the environment and communities by conserving biodiversity, providing for recreational opportunities and cultural wellbeing, storing carbon and providing clean water.
State forests, also provide all of these values, along with recreation and eco-tourism opportunities, timber and non-timber forest products.
The effective conservation benefit provided by state forests has been demonstrated by recent research that shows koala numbers remain high and stable in NSW state forest.
However, this is not a guarantee, for example, in Booderee National Park, severe declines in native animal species have occurred.
Potoroos and bandicoots have had to be re-introduced from nearby state forest after becoming locally extinct within the national park.
In the Pilliga Forest the thriving population of koala declined following conversion of state forest areas to conservation reserves.
This decline is attributed to changes in management that previously encouraged the growth of eucalypt species favoured by koalas.
Given this, it is critical that these lessons be learned and applied if the Great Koala National Park is to truly conserve koala.
Equally, it is important to understand the consequences of removing sustainable, renewable, modest and highly regulated native forest timber supply from state forests when creating the new Great Koala National Park.
Research has shown that when Australian hardwood timber from native forests becomes unavailable, it is mostly replaced by imported timber, concrete, steel or fibre cement - only in relatively few cases is it replaced by Australian plantation products.
The products that predominantly replace native forest timber products have high carbon cost, are less environmentally friendly and represent a much greater sovereign risk.
Some groups advocate for Australia to rely solely on plantations for its timber supply. However, claims that such a transition can be done easily are false and oversimplistic.
For now, we simply do not have sufficient plantations to replace the wood products sourced from native forests.
Increasing the plantation estate needs to start today, however even then it will take decades to meet Australia's growing timber needs. Addressing this is an important task given that every recent global climate-change mitigation strategy highlights the increased use of wood as a substitute for materials with high carbon emissions.
Managing the threat of bushfires is another key consideration. Effective conservation recognises and embraces the role of year-round fire management in maintaining healthy forests.
The reality is that converting state forest to national park causes a loss of capacity that seriously undermines efforts to prepare for, and respond to, future bushfires.
Lessons from Victoria show the difficulty and high costs of maintaining the skill and capacity of expert fire contractors following closure of the state forest industry that provides their core work.
Deciding which areas become a Great Koala National Park presents the NSW Government with a significant opportunity.
Through striking the right mix of national parks and state forests we can meet the many and varying needs of society and the environment.
By adopting holistic and science-based approaches, the NSW Government can demonstrate that it is possible to simultaneously achieve all the benefits flowing from well managed forests.
