Wilderness Australia

21/08/2026

Conservation groups were alarmed when Forestry Corporation of NSW appeared to undertake a brand new type of logging in a NSW state forest earlier this year. It seems to have been an exploratory attempt to exploit a legal loophole.

We believe it is the first case of potentially illegal logging that could be termed ‘for-profit management.’ An operation in Glenbog State Forest, despite being classified as ‘road maintenance,’ was in fact a full scale commercial logging operation in disguise. It bypassed normal logging rules designed to protect the environment and endangered species habitat.

Forestry Corporation are permitted to undertake commercial logging operations in state forests, but in turn they are obliged to manage those forests for the public good and their environmental values. Under law they are not allowed to profit from those separate management activities.

We are grateful to both the Environmental Defenders Office for providing legal advice on the likely breaches of the law involved in this operation, and Angela Heathcote at the ABC for investigating this story.

Andrew Wong, Executive Director
Wilderness Australia

21/08/2026

The Forestry Corporation of NSW operation in Glenbog State Forest has been called "logging in disguise", with conservationists and legal advocates arguing the corporation took advantage of a "legal loophole" they say could expose 50,000 kilometres of roadside forest to unregulated logging.

Forestry Corporation's road management operation involved taking out 21 truckloads of timber, according to Andrew Wong, an environmental campaigner and executive director of Wilderness Australia.

"This looked like a logging operation, not a road management operation," he said.

The logging took place in Glenbog State Forest in south-east NSW, a location believed to be a stronghold for the critically endangered greater glider.

The Forestry Corporation of NSW avoids strict environmental protection for threatened species by calling a logging operation "road maintenance".

20/08/2026

Many of Australia’s national environment and climate groups with regional and grassroots forest organisations met this week to collaborate on a national campaign to protect native forests by ending native forest logging and clearing.

More than fifty environmental organisations have already committed to the principles for forest protection and more are expected. The Forest Protection Principles are a shared roadmap to protect and restore Australia’s native forests. They outline a long-term vision for Australia’s forests, one where native forest logging and clearing has ended, ecosystems are restored, First Nations rights and leadership are respected, and forests are valued for the extraordinary benefits they provide to people, wildlife and the climate.

Signatories include:
Australian Conservation Foundation, Wilderness Australia, Bob Brown Foundation, The Wilderness Society, Australian Climate and Forest Alliance, 350 Australia, The Australia Institute, Peoples Climate Assembly, Victorian Forest Alliance, Western Australia Forest Alliance, ACF Community Booroondara, ACF Community Canberra, ACF Community Forest Alliance Victoria, Australians for Animals Inc, Bellingen Environment Centre, Blicks River Guardians, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Climate Justice Alliance Northern Rivers, Environment East Gippsland, Environment Centre Northern Territory, Canberra Forest Alliance, Central Highlands Action Group, Climate Action Merribek, Climate Action Monaro, Darebin Climate Action Now, Friends of the Forests (Mogo), Friends of Coffs Coast Koalas, Friends of Conglomerate, Friends of Dorrigo Koalas, Friends of Kalang Headwaters, Friends of Newry, Friends of Orara, Friends of Scotchman, Friends of Tarkeeth Koalas, Friends of Tuckers Nob, Forest Ecology Alliance, Gippsland Environment Group, Hands Off Quamby Bluff, Indigenous Justice Advocacy Network, Jarrahdale Forest Protectors, Knitting Nannas Coffs Harbour, Lighter Footprints, Margaret River Regional Environment Center, Tasmanian Climate Collective, Tasmanian Conservation Trust, Western Australia Conservation Council, Wombat Action Group (WA)

Forest Protection Principles 🔗 protectnativeforests.com

20/08/2026

Environmental groups are launching a coordinated push to make native forest protection a national political issue, arguing communities can no longer be left to fight logging and clearing “one forest at a time”.

The Australia Institute has joined other national organisations such as the Australian Conservation Foundation, Wilderness Australia, the Bob Brown Foundation and The Wilderness Society, partnering with regional and grassroots groups to develop a common national strategy.

“With government failing to protect our forests, conservation organisations and grassroots groups are coming together to demand a national approach – because protecting Australia’s forests can’t be left to communities to fight one forest at a time,” said Melanie Audrey, the Wilderness Society’s Biodiversity Policy Campaign Manager.

Read the full piece on The Point: https://thepoint.com.au/new/260820-environmental-groups-launch-push-to-make-native-forest-protection-a-national-political-issue

18/08/2026

“The proponents of the INFM method can certainly demonstrate some technical improvements over other methods, but no carbon offset arrangement can escape several decisive, systemic flaws. Which is why they are being increasingly abandoned around the world” writes Bob Debus, chair of Wilderness Australia

“When carbon credits, however well designed, are traded as offsets, they don’t reduce emissions: they maintain the status quo. They don’t advance decarbonisation: they simply allow emitters to continue business as usual.”

Read the full piece on The Point: https://thepoint.com.au/opinions/260806-we-can-do-better-for-our-forests-than-the-infm-method

15/08/2026

Tucker’s Nob State Forest is not only rich in natural heritage but also has deep cultural significance - it is part of an ancient Dreaming Walking Track. Gumbaynggirr senior Lore and medicine woman Aunty Alison Buchanan imparts a poem she wrote in the evening following her visit into the forest of Tucker’s Nob earlier this week. Aunty Alison describes the impending plight of the trees - her ancestors.

Tucker’s Nob is a vital wildlife corridor essential to the koalas of Pine Creek State Forest, the largest breeding coastal koala population in NSW. This critically important habitat provides safe passage for koalas migrating between the mountains and the coast. Yet this small gap of State Forest between National Parks has now also been excluded from the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) and labelled as “plantation”, despite being a combination of original native forest and regrowth. Without this “Forest Bridge”, the koalas cannot survive and its omission from the GKNP means high conservation-value koala habitat will continue to be logged for woodchip and paper pulp. The roads are in and the harvesting machinery is due to arrive imminently.

Please show your support for the groups working hard to see the “Forest Bridge” included in the GKNP and see how you can get involved with forest vigils or citizen science to stop the destruction from going ahead.

Friends of Tucker’s Nob
SAVE CHRISTMAS HOLES

13/08/2026

The NSW Government has finally agreed to protect 176,000 hectares of forest and create the Great Koala National Park – a habitat for koalas and 66 other threatened species. But there’s a catch.

Under the Federal Government’s proposed new Improved Native Forest Management (INFM) Method, large emitters will be authorised to buy carbon credits from publicly owned native forests to claim they have “offset” their emissions.

That means the protection of every publicly owned native forest in states without logging bans, including NSW, Queensland and Tasmania – will be tied to expansion of carbon pollution from our 200 largest emitters. That fuels climate change, the single biggest threat to the very forests and wildlife these parks are meant to protect.

Right now we have an opportunity to stop this flawed proposal. The Opposition has launched a disallowance motion to veto the Government’s proposal in the Senate. The Greens hold the balance of power – we need them to vote to kill this flawed plan.

Add your name to the petition now – and tell Parliament: protect native forests without giving big polluters a licence to pollute.

The Murray–Darling Basin warns us what happens when nature is turned into a financial market: water trading let big corporations profit while rivers ran dry. We can’t let the same happen to our forests.

Sign the petition ✍️https://nb.australiainstitute.org.au/forests
Link in Bio 🔗

The Australia Institute

08/08/2026

Marie and Ray of Jarake Wildlife Sanctuary have been tirelessly burrowing into citizen science efforts in Glenbog State Forest. They have found over one thousand wombat burrows and marked them all. But the Forestry Corporation have refused to guarantee the burrows will not be collapsed during logging operations by heavy machinery. The only way to protect this population of happy, healthy, mange-free wombats (many rehabilitated and released by Jarake) is to not log Glenbog.

Please sign the petition here: c.org/NdWKwdjkwX

GLENBOG — HOME TO OUR WOMBATS and the current proposed logging start date is 1 September 2026.

This is Benny. He is 16 years old and was raised by us after coming into care with multiple fractures in his pelvis. Today he still uses Glenbog State Forest as part of his home range.

Benny is not alone. Many of the wombats we have raised over the years now use Glenbog as part of their territory. We know these animals. We have watched them grow, survive and establish their lives in this precious forest.

And now their home is under threat.

Within the proposed logging zone, we have GPS-recorded 1,013 wombat burrows.

1,013 WOMBAT BURROWS

This is not an empty forest waiting to be logged. It is a living ecosystem and home to a significant wombat population — including animals like Benny.

We cannot let this go ahead.
PLEASE HELP US PROTECT GLENBOG.
If you haven't already, please sign the petition.
🙏 Please share this post with your friends, family and anyone who cares about Australia's wildlife.
Our goal is 20,000 signatures — and we need your help to get there.
Every signature matters. Every share matters.
Let's stand up for Glenbog and the wombats who call it home

https://c.org/C8V2hY5XMD

Photo ©AndrewKaineder, ©Clear-Cut documentary

06/08/2026

A statement by Bob Debus, Chair of Wilderness Australia (formerly the Colong Foundation for Wilderness), on the new carbon offset method called the Improved Native Forest Management (INFM) method that allows State Governments to earn carbon credit units under the ACCU Scheme.

Bob Debus was a member of the NSW Parliament from 1981 – 1988 and 1995 – 2007, during which time he served as Attorney General, Minister for Emergency Services and became the State’s longest serving Environment Minister.
Bob is currently the Chair of Wilderness Australia and sits on the Board of several other prominent organisations.

Read the full article 🔗 thepoint.com.au The Point

05/08/2026

The Federal Government’s new carbon credits method for ‘protecting’ native forests will allow fossil fuel companies to greenwash their climate pollution and expand coal and gas production.

More than 50 environment groups joined The Australia Institute in calling on governments to save our forest wildlife from extinction without resorting to the use of climate-harming offsets.

The Australia Institute