'Environmental vandals': Labor must step up on forest and wildlife loss

Two court judgments in the NSW state and federal courts have sounded the death knell for threatened and endangered forest fauna and flora.

The judgments have effectively turned Australian wildlife protection back to the "dark ages" with decisions relying on assessments allowing current forestry operations undertaken as far back as 1997. Current peer-reviewed published scientific research on exponentially increasing localized extinction and risks can be ignored.

Let’s deal with the NSW Land and Environment Court court judgment first. The judgment was made in November by Justice Pritchard, in response to a legal challenge by the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) which called out the failure of the Forestry Corporation to provide ecologically sustainable forest management known as ecologically sustainable forest management (ESFM).

Given the dire situation facing koalas remaining in state forests, which are listed as endangered under the Commonwealth Environment Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act(EPBC Act), one of NEFA’s submission grounds provided impeccable evidence of looming extinctions as a result of a lack of adequate protection by the Forestry Corporation.

New koala action plan another policy failure

A new conservation plan designed to protect koalas is once again failing to save the species from extinction.

To date, neither the Forestry Corporation nor the Minns’ Government have taken any action to ensure greater protection of koala habitat as a result of the upgrading of koalas to endangered status approved in February 2022.

A further legal argument focused on whether Forestry staff in approving harvest plans, which provide the go-ahead for logging operations, need to take into account the principles of ecologically sustainable forest management. In other words, have the changes caused by climate and the exponential loss of habitat put species at risk in compartments to be logged and should greater protection or no logging be the appropriate response by Forestry?

Justice Pritchard dismissed the case. Her judgment stated that when the approval for the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations (CIFOA), which control forestry operations, was granted in November 2018, that approval covered all future ecological requirements. The judgment found that the Forestry Corporation was not required to take these principles into account when approving harvest plans.

Given the extraordinary damage caused by the catastrophic 2019-2020 wildfires, native forests have sustained an unacceptable level of short and long-term damage to ecosystems, riparian zones, certain eucalypt species, soil, invertebrates, threatened and endangered flora and fauna, the judgment is a devastating setback to any environmental protection for native forests.

The only way CIFOA provisions and conditions can be changed to ensure greater protection, inclusion of climate change impacts and critically needed focus on rapidly disappearing forest fauna and flora, is by the combined approval of two ministers.

Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and Primary Industry Minister Tara Moriarty have strenuously resisted any changes which would ensure protective measures for forest biodiversity.

In the second legal challenge heard in the Federal Court, it’s important to understand the background. The Regional Forest Agreement Act provides forestry operations with a get-out clause, removing any obligations to pursue Part 3 of the EPBC Act which covers protection of listed threatened and endangered fauna.

Federal Court Judge Perry delivered her judgment on a case launched by NEFA two years ago focused on the failure of the renewed North East Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) to assess and upgrade the ecological status of threatened and endangered flora and fauna. Climate change impacts and old-growth forests were also included and mentioned in NEFA’s submission.

The RFAs agreement was renewed for 20 years in 2018, replacing the previous agreement which was entered into in 1998 based on a 1997 assessment.

According to the judgment, the Commonwealth and NSW undertook a 'comprehensive regional assessment of the north east region' in 1997 and 1998 'and that review is accepted as valid for the renewed agreement'. Forever.

Dailan Pugh, NEFA President said in response to the judgment:

This judgment means that it is valid to roll over Regional Forest Agreements forever-more based on data collated in 1997 and politicised outcomes that ignore the science, including the rapidly increasing extinction risk faced by many forest fauna and the accelerating impact of climate change heating upon them and forests.

In NEFA’s press release, Minister Sharpe, then opposition-environment spokesperson in 2018, was quoted as follows:

'The science underpinning the RFAs is out of date and incomplete, committing that ALP will not sign off on a rollover of the RFAs until there is a proper, independent, scientific assessment of their outcomes and the assumptions of the original RFAs are revisited.'

According to Justice Perry’s judgment, the responsibility for changing the situation lies with governments:

'The question of whether or not to enter into or vary intergovernmental agreement of this nature is essentially a political one, the merits of which are matters for the government parties, not the courts to determine.'

The Environment Defenders Office (EDO) lawyers acting for the NSW Land & Environment Court matter have appealed against the judgment.

Whether the Federal Court judgment will be appealed is no doubt under discussion. The EDO is acting for NEFA in this matter as well.

Minns Government sells out Great Koala National Park

In a stunning blow to the promised creation of the Great Koala National Park, the Minns Government has announced it won’t be established until 2025.

In the meantime, scientific research continues to reveal an extraordinary level of damage to native forests by the Black Summer fires.

A recent study by scientists from La Trobe University believe 60 billion invertebrates perished on just the rainforest floors.

'When the entire bushfire zone was analyzed, the amount of insect casualties skyrocketed' according to Professor Heloise Gibb, with the number in the trillions.

She said:

'If we scaled up across the whole burnt landscape and assumed a similar number affected, we think it could have been six trillion invertebrates lost.'

'Insects play a vital role in the food chain, eaten by birds, amphibians, fish.' Professor Gibbs says 'a lot of birds feed on insects. Those species won’t come back unless there are invertebrates to eat'.

Given the ongoing industrial logging in the proposed Great Koala National Park in NSW, and the disappointing responses to biodiversity loss by Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, Labor continues to carve out a reputation as a global environmental vandal.

The ongoing destruction of NSW and Tasmania’s native forests have profound ramifications for the future. Particularly in the face of serious climate change impacts already impacting Australia.