Secret document urges native logging halt in NSW regions hit hard by black summer bushfires

The New South Wales government has kept secret a document calling for a halt to native logging in regions hit hard by the black summer bushfires and recommending revising agreements to account for the increasing threat of global heating .

Those risks included threats to vulnerable and critically endangered fauna and flora, including koalas and the long-nosed potoroo.

A spokesperson for state-owned Forestry Corporation declined to comment on the report. The fires and a surge in demand, though, had contributed to supply shortages even with the salvage logging of burnt plantations.

Preliminary modelling conducted by the government predicted the recovery of burnt areas in the north coast would be much quicker than for the south coast.

The existing Coastal IFOA had not been designed to reduce the risks of logging in a severely fire-affected landscape after the record bushfire season, the report said. The trends indicate the threats will intensify.

The commission recommended the government develop a new framework to address the risk and priorities, and use research to fill data gaps.