Native forest logging back by stealth three years after promised end
Victorian National Parks Association, Wilderness Society, Environment Victoria and Victorian Forest
The Allan government has released a State Forest By-Products Framework that effectively creates a loophole for a new form of incentivised logging and land clearing, with fewer protections than the industry it replaced, and no public consultation.
The Victorian National Parks Association, the Wilderness Society, Environment Victoria and the Victorian Forest Alliance are calling on Premier Allan to ban the selling of trees from public land to commercial timber mills and immediately rule out any logging in Victoria's national parks and conservation reserves. They are also calling on the Allan government to establish independent oversight and protections for threatened wildlife from forest management operations before the new framework takes effect.
Victorian National Parks Association Nature Campaigner Jordan Crook said the framework betrays forests and the communities that worked tirelessly to protect them.
‘Victorians were told logging was over, but the chainsaws and logging machines never really left. They just re-branded. Greater Gliders, Brush-tailed Phascogales, and the forest giants they depend on deserve better than having their protection quietly traded away.’
‘We expect government departments to plan and carry out operations to the highest possible standards of nature protection, in a transparent manner. Currently there’s no independent oversight, no enforceable standards, and no transparency.’ said Jordan.
Instead of nature protection and safety being prioritised in fire management operations, this framework creates loopholes that will embed native forest logging for commercial use under a different name, causing unnecessary destruction to forests and continued exploitation.
‘The management framework for Victoria’s forests is riddled with loopholes. DEECA is effectively both operator and regulator of the by-products framework, with nobody left to check what is happening on the ground. This basically leaves the community as the regulator, using citizen science and legal action to uphold nature laws’ said Jo Hopkins, Victorian Campaigns Manager, Wilderness Society.
What the framework does
The new policy allows the State to sell trees from Victoria's public forests to sawmills and firewood companies. Trees will be removed from forests by clearing new roads and fuel breaks, removing fallen trees following storms, and felling trees deemed hazardous. The problem is, there’s no independent oversight to make sure works are actually necessary and to make sure damage to wildlife and habitats is limited.
The end to native forest logging was promised on 23 May 2023 and started on January 1 2024, acknowledging the urgent need for forests to be protected from this destructive practice. It meant forests could begin to heal, trees slowly growing large enough to form hollows, wildlife returning, habitat recovering. This framework puts that recovery at risk.
The government has spent more than $1.3 billion on transitioning the industry, but is now creating new loopholes for continued sale of timber and firewood sourced from trees on public land.
Conservation groups have identified serious problems with the framework:
- No independent oversight. Forest Fire Management Victoria would assess its own ecological impacts and determine its own compliance, with no external regulator and no requirement to make assessments public. This would allow commercial priorities to override nature protection.
- No equivalent to the old logging code of practice. The detailed rules that governed commercial logging have not been replaced. There are no explicit standards about what areas and damage must be avoided, and no protected zones equivalent to the Special Protection Zones that previously shielded high-conservation areas.
- Permanent habitat destruction. Some actions, like new fire break construction, involve permanent clearing with no expectation of regrowth or recovery.
- No public consultation. The framework was released without any formal community consultation period.
- Same contractors, less scrutiny. Works are in many cases being done by contractors and staff who previously worked for VicForests as commercial loggers.
What needs to happen
Conservation groups are calling on the Allan government to:
- Close the loophole of sale of logs to commercial timber mills and firewood merchants.
- Establish independent oversight of Forest Fire Management Victoria's activities before the framework is implemented.
- Release a public code of practice with enforceable nature protection standards.
- Recommit to transparency by publishing ecological assessments for all significant works on public land.
- Rule out all logging operations, including removal and selling of trees, in Victoria's national parks and conservation reserves.