North Coast Environment Council Media Release February, 2, 2024

Government sleight of hand weakens Greater Glider protections

The NSW Government is being tricky with its numbers, suggesting they have improved protection for Greater Gliders when they have actually weakened it according to NCEC Vice-President, Susie Russell.

“Instead of being honest with the people of NSW and acknowledging that we can’t have all the unique and precious animals our forests still support AND a native forest logging industry. The animals need undisturbed forest and the other rampages across the landscape leaving devastation in its wake. It is one or the other. They are lying when they suggest we can have both.

“Today’s announcement by the NSW Environment Protection Authority, removing the requirement for Forestry Corporation to look for Greater Gliders, and other animals home den trees prior to logging is another nail in the coffin of these already endangered creatures.

“It looks like nature has lost and the Government is opting for telegraph poles, pallets, floorboards and woodchips rather than koalas, owls, quolls and gliders.

“The Government needs to immediately begin to buy back wood contracts to take the pressure off our wildlife,” Ms Russell said, “because animals like endangered Greater Gliders die when their den trees die, and they die when their home range is cleared by logging machinery. That’s one reason they are endangered, and the EPA is meant to protect the environment, not the logging industry.”