A group of Australia’s past and present politicians and environmental groups have signed on to a pledge urging the state and federal governments to halt the logging of native forests in the country.

The Forest Pledge, launched Monday by independent MP Sophie Scamps, called on state and federal politicians to work toward a total ban on industrial-scale native forestry.

An estimated 50 million trees are logged in Australia each year, leading to the death of over 70 mln native animals, according to the pledge.

It said Australia could become a world leader in protecting and restoring forests to protect wildlife, store carbon, and adapt to climate change.

Ending the practice would also help the country meet its climate and nature commitments under the Paris Agreement and the Global Biodiversity Framework, it said.

“We – the undersigned – pledge to do everything in our power to pressure local, state, and federal governments to end the destruction and loss-making logging of our precious native forests,” the pledge said.

“With generous support for timber workers and a well-managed transition, we could grow regional economies with a sustainable timber industry and support tourism business.”

It called on governments to end taxpayer subsidies for state-owned logging agencies, and for major investment to expand sustainable plantations to secure future supply of timber.

“It’s now time for the serving politicians in the major parties to act,” Scamps told a launch event in Canberra.

“Some of Australia’s most iconic species – including koalas, gliders, as well as countless other birds, mammals, and reptiles – are found nowhere else in the world.”

Other independent MPs and senators signed on to the pledge, as well as Greens party politicians and former Coalition Environment Minister Robert Hill.

Groups that signed the pledge include Greening Australia, the Biodiversity Council, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, WWF, and the Wilderness Society.

“If we are serious about conserving biodiversity, we need to end native forest logging and remove taxpayer subsidies propping up this industry,” Biodiversity Council member professor David Lindenmayer said at the event.

DEFORESTATION HOTSPOT

Western Australia, Victoria, and parts of Queensland are in the process of winding up their native forest logging industries by the end of this year.

However, the activity is still rampant in other regions, to the extent that north-eastern Australia has been declared a global deforestation hotspot.

Last month, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told state parliament that his government wanted to ensure state forests were eligible to earn carbon credits before native logging could end.

“You have to have a system set up and running before you can quarantine a park or an area to allow for that area or that zone to be eligible for the carbon transfer,” he said in budget estimates.

“If you do it in reverse, then you can’t retroactively go to that national park or that forest and say, ‘this will now apply to carbon offsets in the future’… unless there’s an internationally recognised trading marketplace that’s established, then we would potentially miss out on billions of dollars’ worth of investment.”

He said NSW was relying on the Commonwealth government to set up a trading scheme that would be applicable to the NSW economy.

A report released by think-tank the Blueprint Institute earlier this year said there was no economic case for continued logging of native forests on the North Coast of New South Wales, describing it as a “loss-making exercise” propped up by softwood plantation government enterprises and the taxpayer.

The report estimated that managing the North Coast region in a manner consistent with conservation would abate some 450,000 tonnes of CO2e per year – equating to a net present value of A$174 million.

Momentum appears to be gaining to end the practice of native logging, with a major Australian bank announcing last week that it would end lending to the conversion of natural forest to agricultural land from the beginning of 2026.

By Mark Tilly – mark@carbon-pulse.com

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