The NSW Land and Environment Court has imposed a $450,000 penalty on the Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) after it was found to have unlawfully destroyed old growth forest and hollow-bearing trees in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest on the Dorrigo Plateau.
The illegal logging occurred in June and July 2020 when FCNSW and its contractor Greensill Bros Pty Ltd destroyed numerous giant old growth and hollow-bearing trees in one of the most significant Koala Hubs in NSW. The forest forms part of a Gondwanan landscape recognised for its likely Outstanding Universal Value and supports critical habitat for Koalas.
This new criminal fine against the Forestry Corporation will add to the more than $1.1 million in fines received by the Forestry Corporation for separate offences since June 2022, when these crimes were committed.
Greens MP, spokesperson for the environment and Solicitor Sue Higginson said:
"The community is again paying the bill for the criminal destruction of public forests carried out by a Government logging agency. Because the Forestry Corporation is a State owned corporation, this $450,000 penalty will ultimately be paid by the people of NSW,"
"This case confirms that the Forestry Corporation of NSW criminally destroyed giant and hollow bearing trees in one of the most important koala habitats on the Dorrigo Plateau. These giant hollow-bearing trees are irreplaceable ecological assets. They take hundreds of years to form and they provide homes for threatened wildlife that cannot survive without them,"
"The destruction of koala habitat in forests that hold deep cultural significance for the Gumbaynggirr people is a profound harm that should never have occurred in our publicly owned forests. For the first time in NSW, an interested third party joined the sentencing proceedings as a friend of the court and called for the court to make restoration orders on the Forestry Corporation, which the court did,"
"The Court has directed the nearly half a million dollar penalty to the Yurruungga Aboriginal Corporation so that restoration work can begin to repair the harm caused to Country. This is a welcomed initiative however, it is an incredibly broken system when Traditional Custodians will now be repairing their lands that the Forestry Corporation illegally desecrated,"
"When the Government's own logging corporation is convicted of destroying old growth forest in a koala hub, causing ecological and cultural harm, it demonstrates that the system regulating native forest logging in NSW is fundamentally broken. The Minns Labor Government must act now to end native forest logging and protect these irreplaceable forests before more damage is done and more fines and penalties are issued at the expense of the public purse," Ms Higginson said.
