The transcript of proceedings of the Independent Forestry Panel in teleconference with the Independent Koala Expert Panel on 1 November 2024 was released on Friday 20 December, at the end of the last working week before Christmas. The Forestry Panel will oversee the destruction of sustainable forestry in NSW to ‘save’ koalas.

Chair of the IFP, Mr. Peter Duncan, said to his co-panellist Professor O’Kane: “Mary, can I ask another question? I’m trying to find a way to actually describe it but maybe the best way to say from your expert panel’s point of view, what are the major headlines that we should take away from your work about the koala?”

Professor Carolyn Hogg of the IKEP interjected “Stop cutting down trees.”

The transcript continues:

“MR DUNCAN: Well, two or three points. That’s one, yes.

“PROF HOGG: Seriously, Peter, that’s the main point that comes up every time. So one of the key issues we had for the last decade is we were not including habitat loss was something that could not be actioned by what are they now? DCCEEW? BCS? I can never remember their official name but the people who are responsible for managing koalas have really no oversight of how to control the habitat loss. And so in that way it was never really part of the strategies but koalas live in trees, they feed on trees and they need trees to move through the landscape.

“And so the conflict between koalas and forestry in my mind really stems from this fact that we’ve been kept – it’s in these two silos where they’re not integrated enough, so you can’t make informed management decisions around how to protect habitat and have a sustainable forestry industry at the same time because the two plans are not – there’s no touchpoints or integration between them.    

“And so when people keep asking, “How are we going to solve the koala problem in New South Wales?” I think anyone you ask, the first words out of their mouth is protect their habitat is the first thing and that’s the issue for the panel is we have – it’s been very difficult in the last few years to get land clearing data to even understand what’s happening to their habitat to be able to make informed recommendations around what we should do next.

“MR DUNCAN: Yes. So it’s not just cutting down, it’s also losing that habitat, isn’t it? So whether it’s fire or, you know –

“PROF HOGG: Yes, it’s fire, it’s forestry, it’s putting in linear infrastructure. Martin, you’re on mute.“

Martin Predavec was employed by NSW’s National Parks bureaucracy from 2013 until 2020.

In 2016 he provided an ‘independent’ report on NSW koala population case studies which underpinned then Chief Scientist, Prof. O’Kane’s Report of the independent review into the decline of koala populations in key areas of NSW. Predavec explained “it’s habitat modification rather than just simply habitat loss”.

Aboriginal representative Oliver Costello chimed in:

“it’s not just a habitat, it’s how the habitat is connected as well. And that’s the whole songlines sort of story, it’s like the koalas are – there’s a whole big yarn about that but it is like families and bloodlines and stuff like that and that’s the same with habitat, those different species of plants and animals relate to each other and if you’re losing that connection between those species, then you start to have these problems. And so yes, it’s logging, it’s fire, it’s development and I love to live [unintelligible 00:39:00] and I love wood, I want to have a sustainable forestry industry. You know, the Northern Rivers, I think we should be growing trees.”

So, everyone agrees we should be growing trees but nearly everyone thinks we shouldn’t cut them down. Sustainable forestry relies upon the simple fact that the more trees you cut down, the more young trees grow back. More young trees provide more food for more koalas. Contrary to the misinformed ramblings of the Independent Koala Expert Panel, koalas are not endangered, and forestry is good for koalas.

The Independent Forestry Panel and the NSW Environment Department are no good for koalas or people. They promote a Lock It Up and Let It Burn conservation paradigm. It’s no threat to the irruptive species, but thousands of koalas suffer every year as a consequence of overcrowding and disease or dog attacks and vehicle injuries as young disperse into suburbia. When we have severe droughts and inevitable megafires explode in the massive, unnatural accumulations of fuel, it’s even worse.

See: Great Koala National Park; koala; Open for Debate: Koalas

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