The Victorian Forest Alliance is disappointed the Victorian Government has used taxpayers’ money to go to court to continue logging the Greater Glider closer to extinction — just weeks after the Glider was officially declared endangered.
Victorian Government owned logging "business" VicForests — which had to be bailed out with another $21.21M by taxpayers last year — went to the Supreme Court this week to win the right to log native forest that it openly admitted Greater Gliders are living in.
Despite confirmed detections of Greater Gliders in the native forest areas scheduled for logging, VicForests stated it refused to survey to see if there were more there. VFA spokesperson Nic Fox said the public was mostly unaware they are paying for these endangered animals to be logged into extinction or that VicForests was losing more money each year.
"If VicForests, again, logged roughly 3000 hectares of forest last year, then taxpayers lost $7000 per hectare that VicForests bulldozed,” said Ms Fox. “It’s because they have already logged most of the mature forest and now rely on younger forest containing almost entirely small trees which end up being low-value wood chips.”
Earlier this month, yet another peer-reviewed scientific study came out revealing logging increases bushfire risk around our country towns, this time by renowned fire scientist Ross Bradstock. Ms Fox says, “The continued logging of our remaining unburnt native forests by VicForests is making our country towns less safe.
“This horrible waste has to end — this money could be used to hire country nurses and pay the remaining logging crews as year-round firefighters, extending their current summer employment."
The VFA considers the Victorian Government to be in clear breach of its Regional Forest Agreement with the Commonwealth to protect endangered species (through the Federal EPBC Act, which the state promises to enforce at state level).
Media contact:
Mika Tran
Victorian Forest Alliance (VFA)
Media and Communications Officer
0412 893 513