GECO turns 30 and we are having the party of the decade...

Posted by Tuffy Morwitzer · August 03, 2023 5:23 PM · 1 reaction

Logging to end by 2024! What's next I wonder...

Posted by Tuffy Morwitzer · May 25, 2023 7:17 PM · 1 reaction

Mass survey action planned to contest anti-protest laws

Posted by Tuffy Morwitzer · May 12, 2023 8:57 PM · 2 reactions

We hold all sorts of events from protests and forest blockades to parties, concerts and film nights.

We're most well known for our citizen science forest survey camps, held every three months in the forests of far East Gippsland. 

Forty people made the journey to Goongerah for the GECO winter citizen science camp over the long weekend. 

People from Melbourne, Canberra, East Gippsland and as far as the USA and Hong Kong joined us for old growth walks, forest carbon accounting practicals, remote fauna camera deployment, habitat mapping and nocturnal spotlighting surveys.

Lots of valuable data was collected to help protect East Gippsland's forests and threatened species from logging.

The State government has issued fines to three citizen science surveyors who reported illegal rainforest logging. Despite the State government committing to implementing a raft of changes to logging rules in light of the information we provided, fines have been issued for entering logging "safety zone". We'll be fighting the fines in court and will not be silenced for speaking out about VicForests unlawful logging operations.

The so called 'safety zones' are designed to keep the public out of the forests and shield VicForests logging operations from scrutiny. We'll continue to monitor and document logging operations. It's in the public interest for the public to know what is happening in their forests.

Thom Mitchell

The Victorian government has fined a conservationist who exposed what the Environment Minister described as “very disturbing” and “extremely poor practice” logging, despite reports he helped prepare becoming a catalyst for substantial reform of industry guidelines.

Originally published by New Matilda: https://newmatilda.com/2015/08/10/victorian-government-thanks-conservationists-exposing-disturbing-logging-practices-fining/

Camp Kuark threatened species survey weekend was a great success! 40 enthusiastic and energetic people from across Victoria and interstate attended and took part in forest walks, flora surveys, rainforest identification workshops, nocturnal spotlighting and Owl surveys.

It was great to meet so many new people, share with them the beauty of the Kuark forest and inform them about the logging that threatens this incredible forest.

Goongerah Environment Centre Office (GECO) is a grass roots group fighting for protection of East Gippsland's forests.

Based in the small town of Goongerah in far East Gippsland Victoria, since 1993 we have campaigned for ancient forests under threat from logging using education and public awareness, political lobbying, non-violent direct action, citizen science and forest monitoring.

We live and work on the stolen lands of the Gunaikurnai and Bidewell and Monero people, where sovereignty was never ceded. We pay respect to the thousands of years of their ongoing custodianship of the land.

Check out some of our achievements here:

Media - Survey reports - Awards

GECO is a non-hierarchical organisation. We are a group of individuals involved in collective action to protect East Gippsland's old growth forests and to support actions happening around Australia and the world.