WHY IS AUSTRALIA CUTTING DOWN TREES? AND WHERE DO THE LOGS END UP?

We all need trees – to breathe, to belong, to survive. But Australia is still logging native forests.

We’re calling on our leaders to end this destruction. Add your name to thousands of voices calling to end native forest logging in Australia before it’s too late.

It’s estimated that at least 700 threatened animal species across Australia depend on trees for food and shelter, including greater gliders, koalas, possums and flying foxes. Sadly, however, Australia also has the highest rate of deforestation in the developed world. 

Deforestation is the deliberate removal of trees and forests from land that has never been cleared before. It has catastrophic consequences, destroying the life-sustaining biodiversity of our native forests and threatening our well-being, communities, climate, wildlife and the planet. 

A significant cause of deforestation is logging, which is when trees are cut down for wood. But the impact of this destruction doesn’t stop there. A large proportion of trees are discarded on the forest floor, increasing the risk of bushfires. Cutting down trees also tears open forest canopies, exposing more sunlight and wind to the forest floor, which dries out fallen debris and undergrowth, making them even more flammable. 

The process of logging has heartbreaking consequences for our planet, as it causes carbon emissions and fuels the global climate crisis. 

What are logged trees used for?

It’s commonly thought that our forests are cut down for housing materials or other high-quality wood products. However, the sad reality is that most logged trees are destroyed to produce cheap, low-value products such as wood pallets, tomato stakes and vast amounts of woodchips, many of which are shipped overseas and converted into paper and cardboard. 

Sadly, it’s estimated that more than 60% of logged wood is either wasted during manufacturing or left on the forest floor to be burnt. 

The scary statistics

• Australia is the only country in the developed world still logging native forests. 
• Areas of forest the size of a football field are logged every two minutes in Australia. 
• More than 60% of Australian logs are either wasted during manufacturing, turned into pulp or left on the forest floor to be burnt. 
• Approximately 50% of NSW native forest logs are exported as woodchips. 
• 20 trees are bulldozed every minute in NSW. 
• Australia’s iconic koala faces extinction on the east coast by 2025 unless we take drastic action. 
• Tree hollows large enough for greater gliders, possums and cockatoos take over 200 years to form, and the loss of old trees removes this habitat for decades. 

The frontline: Tallaganda State Forest

An hour east of Canberra, Tallaganda State Forest and Tallaganda National Park play a crucial role in the long-term survival of a special flying marsupial, the greater glider.  

Greater gliders rely on tree hollows to make their homes, which can take up to 150 years or longer to form. Sadly, activities like logging, deforestation, severe bushfires and global heating have all made it harder for them to find the hollow-bearing trees they depend on. 

After the catastrophic bushfires of 2019-20, WWF-Australia used generous supporter donations to fund critical recovery work in the area, which is one of the last remaining strongholds for greater gliders, to help their numbers bounce back.  

We installed hi-tech nest boxes in Tallaganda National Park and were thrilled to discover families of greater gliders had set up camp in our boxes just a few months later. 

But in 2023, we heard of operations in the nearby Tallaganda State Forest, where logging by the Forestry Corporation of NSW has destroyed vast areas of this critical forest. Greater gliders don’t follow borders, so their home ranges take them beyond the protection of the national park. This means they could easily roam into the state forest where logging occurs. 

With the lives of greater gliders and the recovery projects we’d worked so hard on being at risk, we immediately called on our supporters to speak up for these incredible marsupials and end logging in the area. Thousands of you sprang into action, prompting an investigation by the NSW Environmental Protection Agency. After finding a deceased greater glider just 50 metres from where logging was taking place, we were relieved when they issued a temporary Stop Work Order. 

We then worked with our dedicated partners, Wilderness Australia and South East Forest Rescue, to survey the area for greater glider den trees and uncovered even more troubling news. Our investigations identified 17 greater glider den trees in less than four hours on site. With the Forestry Corporation of NSW claiming to have found just one in an area 600 times the size, our investigations revealed they’d likely breached logging standards and failed to protect essential den trees more than a thousand times. 

To make matters worse, over half the logged trees in Tallaganda had been felled just to be turned into firewood and woodchips, which are then exported to be made into low-value, disposable products like paper, paper products and box liners. 

It has to stop. 

The future for Australian forests

To give greater gliders, koalas and other wildlife a fighting chance at survival, ending native forest logging must be permanent, not only in Tallaganda State Forest but throughout NSW and Australia.  

We’re calling on our leaders to end native forest logging, for good, starting with the full protection of the Great Koala National Park, which would safeguard 176,000ha of critical habitat, and up to 20% of the wild koalas remaining in NSW. We’re also supporting a just and fair transition to a sustainable timber industry which will help hundreds of workers and create sustainable forestry jobs. 

Australia can shift from being a deforestation nation to a reforestation nation – but we must act now.   

Call on our leaders to end native forest logging and protect our forests, wildlife, and future.