Letter to the Editor: Ongoing clearing of Koala Park ‘offensive’ Opinion Property/Sports/Opinion - popup ad by News Of The Area - Modern Media - May 16, 2024 DEAR News Of The Area, AS a scientist, as an Australian and as a resident of the Mid North Coast near the proposed Great Australian Koala Park, the behaviour by the NSW Premier in allowing ongoing clearing in the proposed Great Koala National Park is offensive to me at so many levels. Last year, then Opposition Leader and now NSW Premier Chris Minns pledged to develop the Great Koala National Park. Yet his government’s policies allow the continuing degradation of this and other precious native forests in NSW while they scramble to see how they can use these forests as a tradeable asset in a planned carbon offset scheme. Minns himself has said: “You have to have the system 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. If you do it in reverse, then you can’t retroactively go to that national park or that forest”. In other words, let’s make the Park more of a commercial asset rather than a place to protect biodiversity. Meanwhile the forests within the park are being steadily degraded, with more than 106 sectors in the proposed Great Koala National Park already closed for the harvesting of native timber. The legitimacy of carbon offset schemes has repeatedly been called into serious question, realising their ineffectiveness in fighting climate change, and their use by many companies as a license to pollute. Victoria and WA have taken the lead in banning native forest logging, while NSW wallows in the backwash, more concerned with fanciful strategy than genuine action. Regards, Paul DAVIES, Principal, Think Sustainability.
Thank You Paul. Well said and according to polls, the majority of Australians (over 60%) want the native forest logging industry shut down. There is no social license left and NSW should follow WA and Victoria in closing down this senseless, loss making industry ($30m over the last 2 years – all covered by taxpayers money) Reply
As an offroad 4wder will I still be able to drive through the state forests that will be turned into a national park? Can you still camp in these forests? Can you fossick for gold, ride horses, mountain bikes and trail bikes? How come all these questions have not been addressed for the wider community? The media certainly isnt reporting on the finer issues for the community. All we know is productive timber forests that create jobs in the local areas will be locked up so the Greenies get a sense of false sense of satisfaction that they have saved some koalas. Let me tell you if all our forests around the Orara Valley are handed over to Sparks and Wildfires the forests wont be managed and will burn all the way to the coast when we get two consecutive elnino droughts. That will destroy the healthy koala numbers on the Mid North Coast. Can we then thank the Greens when that happens and revert back to the model we have now? Reply
