[Greens-Media] Media Release: Logging Native Forests costs NSW taxpayers millions

[David Shoebridge MLC]

Logging Native Forests costs NSW taxpayers millions

Figures obtained by the NSW Greens show that the state government is
already losing millions of dollars a year to effectively pay the logging
industry to destroy native forests. Proposals by the timber industry and
their friends in the O'Farrell government to expand logging into previously
unexploited areas of state forests or nature reserves would only increase
the amount taxpayers lose to destroy our forests.

As reported in the Sun Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/hatchet-job-on-native-forest-logging-20130518-2jtcf.html

NSW Greens MP and Forestry spokesperson, David Shoebridge said:

“It is now clear that in every region across the state, logging native
forests loses the NSW government money, almost $8 million a year in total.

“Increased logging will just increase the amount NSW taxpayers pay the
logging industry to destroy our natural heritage.

“For every hectare logged, NSW taxpayers lose $671, and this ignores the
loss the public suffers from the fact that our forests are destroyed.

“Overall it cost NSW taxpayers a total of $119 million to log our state
forests in 2012 and the total of all fees and revenue that earned the
government was just $111 million.

“The losses for the whole of 2012 come on top of the reported 2012 FY loss
for native forestry operations by Forests NSW of $16 million.

“Loggers and their friends in state parliament now want to increase the
volume of wood being harvested from 160,000 cubic metres to 269,000 cubic
metres every year.

“To feed that massive 80% increase will require logging more than 40,000
hectares of NSW forest every year – from protected reserve areas and
overexploited state forests. That will cost NSW taxpayers dearly.

Native forestry propped up by plantations

“The continued losses in native forestry operations compares with the
economically robust results from plantations.  Plantations continue to prop
up the economically unviable native forest operations.

“In the 2012 financial year Forests NSW plantations returned an annual
profit of $32 million, but half of this was lost propping up the economic
basket case that is native forestry operations.

“The current industrial logging practices used in our State Forests are not
only damaging the environment, they are damaging the State’s finances.

“Wood chipping native forests causes enormous environmental
destruction—it’s not like health or education where people expect the
government to subsidise a social good.

“Rather than expanding native forest logging, as the Shooters Party and the
Nationals are calling for, the government should be actively transitioning
away from native forests to plantations.

“The real value of this State’s native forests is not in the small return
we get from woodchips but in the ongoing bio-diversity and tourism returns
we receive from the intact forests,” Mr Shoebridge said.

The facts on native forest logging in NSW in 2012:

Forests NSW Facts and Figures FY 2012

Native Forests
Total area of native forests logged                          23,829
hectares
Total revenue for native forestry operations           $112 million
Total cost for native forestry operations                 ($128 million)
Gross revenue per hectare logged                         $4,700
Gross cost per hectare logged                               ($5,371)
Net loss per hectare logged                                   ($671)
Plantations
Total amount of plantations                                     0.38
million hectares
Total area of plantations harvested                         14,024 hectares

Total revenue for plantation operations                   $198 million
Total cost for plantation operations                        ($166 million)
Gross revenue per hectare plantations logged.      $14,118
Net profit loss per hectare plantations logged        $2,281

Media contact: 0408 113 952







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David Shoebridge

Greens MP in the NSW Legislative Council

P: (02) 0408 113 952|Media: 0433 753 376|T:
@ShoebridgeMLC<http://twitter.com/#%21/shoebridgemlc>

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