A report by the NSW Auditor General, Peter Achterstraat, has found that logging practices in northern NSW native forests are unsustainable and unprofitable.

“The native forests managed by Forests NSW on the North Coast are being cut faster than they are growing back. This will eventually result in a reduction in the available timber,” Mr Achterstraat said.

He said Forests NSW should have enough hardwood timber to meet its commitments until 2023, but warned the government needed to do a lot more work before it committed to any new contracts.

The report also revealed that native forest operations in NSW ran at a loss of more than $14 million in the 2007-08 financial year.

“I can only see this loss increasing as Forests NSW continues to look for new sources of hardwood timber and the costs of harvest and haulage increase,” he said.

The timber industry’s peak body, the NSW Forest Products Association, responded by saying that if the costs of environmental management and compliance were stripped, then the industry would be in a healthy state.

“While the increased haulage and harvest costs are playing a role in pressuring the profitability of Forests NSW, the hidden costs of meeting the environmental and social standards set for forest management in NSW are not examined or acknowledged in the Auditor General’s report,” Russell Ainley, Executive Director of the NSW FPA said. “We cannot take short cuts in maintaining a sustainable and well managed forest industry, and it doesn’t come cheap.”

The Auditor General has called for improvements in the management of native forests for the supply of timber in NSW.

Susie Russell from the North East Forest Alliance said the report validates what the Alliance has been saying for many years.

“The logging industry in north-east NSW has no long-term future. Forests NSW has failed to check its estimated timber supplies against actual volumes obtained, or to update its estimates based on areas that have already been logged as required by various Forest Agreements… (The report) cites one example where FNSW paid more than half a million dollars to buy out 34,000 cubic metres of timber – a small fraction of the committed volumes. This indicates that the full cost of the contracts to the public – should supply fail – will be immense,” Ms Russell said. “It is now abundantly clear that our forests are not in the ‘safe hands’ we are told, nor are they  managed for the long-term benefit of the people of NSW. They should be managed as carbon sinks, biodiversity stores and water reservoirs. Mining them for timber is no longer acceptable,” Ms Russell said.

A full copy of the Auditor General’s report is available online at www.audit.nsw.gov.au