Forestry Corporation manages 2 million hectares of public native forest in NSW for multiple uses – tourism, supporting primary production through apiary and cattle grazing, conservation and renewable timber production.

We conduct over 100 operations a year in which around one per cent of State forests are safely harvested and then regrown as part of a sustainable native regrowth practice. Almost one million hectares of these State forests are permanently set aside in reserves and the whole estate is managed to support wildlife populations on an ongoing basis.

We work closely with the NSW Department of Primary Industries on research into wildlife in State forests, including koalas and this research can be found at Koala research in NSW forests.

Native forestry in NSW is highly regulated, with detailed rules to ensure timber harvesting is undertaken sustainably and responsibly in the small areas of State forests. These rules were created with the input from expert panels and are designed to protect key wildlife habitat and other important forest features and ensure that trees removed for timber are then regrown in full.

Our team of professionally trained staff carry out operations in compliance with these strict environmental regulations. Our operations are independently regulated by the Environment Protection Authority and we are independently certified to the Australian Standard for Sustainable Forest Management, Responsible Wood.

Due to the complex nature of the forest operating environment, sometimes unintentional errors occur that result in non-compliances.

The 9 June 2022 NSW Land and Environment Court judgement relates to a 2018 operation in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest. In 2018, we were introducing new technology that could digitally identify harvesting boundaries in the form of an electronic mapping system and GPS. At the time, the system required map updates to be sent via email and, regrettably, human and technology error led to one of the map updates not being received and, as a result, an older version of the map being used.

We acknowledge these mapping and marking errors resulted in a small number of trees being removed from areas that should have been set aside. During the same operation, a further 14 hectares for koala habitat was protected above what was required under the regulations, equivalent to around 6,000 additional trees.

We take our compliance responsibility very seriously and over recent years we have invested in improving the technology we use, employed more people on the ground to monitor compliance, delivered additional training to staff and contractors, and reviewed our systems and processes to detect and prevent mistakes before they occur.

Forestry Corporation is a State-Owned Corporation, a business owned and operated by the NSW Government. Forestry Corporation pays dividend and taxes to the NSW Government and does not receive subsidies from the Government.

Media contact: 0427 939 543