The NSW Government has today announced changes that will remove protections for endangered Southern Greater Gliders despite dozens of community reports, and an active court case, that show the NSW Forestry Corporation have been unlawfully logging critical habitat.
Under the new rules the Forestry Corporation will no longer be required to conduct species specific suveys for Greater Gliders and Greater Glider den trees before logging operations commence and instead there will be a requirement to retain a small increase in hollow bearing trees from 8 to 14 per hectare.
Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson said “This is a gross dereliction of duty by the Government and will continue to drive and accelerate the extinction of Greater Gliders, the world’s largest gliding marsupial.
“The only people who will be checking for Greater Glider den trees before industrial scale logging begins in our public forests will be unpaid community volunteers that are deeply concerned about the extinction of precious and endangered species. I am frankly flabbergasted that the Minns Labor Government is now placing regulatory responsibility for Gliders on the good will of community volunteers when it should be the responsibility of the industry and the regulator,”
“Simply increasing the number of hollow bearing trees alone is not the solution when it comes to ensuring forest dependent species with specific habitat requirements don’t go extinct. Without a requirement to find and protect den trees, it is inevitable that Greater Gliders will be killed when the den tree that they are sleeping in is cut down.
“The Government has said that they have consulted with experts, but which experts? The leading forest ecologists have been saying for years that we don’t even reliably know how many Greater Gliders are left in the wild. Now through what appears to be some kind of non scientific negotiation the environmental regulator has made it easier for loggers to destroy Greater Glider Habitat across our public forest estate when what they should be doing is protecting these animals and their habitat while we ascertain their true conservation status,”
“This is a dangerous side step by Chris Minns, who is only interested in the political expediency of keeping a few loggers and the Nationals at bay while destroying our precious native forests. I am sickened that the Government’s response to unlawful logging is to remove the responsibility to comply with the current conditions,” Ms Higginson said.
