After a five year long community campaign, the iconic Kuark forest in East Gippsland was finally protected by the Victorian government. Tragically, Kuark was severely impacted by the devastating fires of 2019/2020. Kuark forest was one of the most bio-diverse forests in Victoria, rich in wildlife, rare rainforest and old growth forests.

After months of wondering with hope and fear of how Kuark had been impacted by the fires, Tasmanian nature photographer Rob Blakers and GECO campaigners returned to the area to document the devastation. Sadly the scale and intensity of the destruction wrought by the fires is profoundly devastating. Read a report from The Guardian Australia here.

Mount Kuark old growth forest 

The government announced the protection of 90,000ha of old growth forests, but VicForests' have been left in charge of finding and protecting them using an inadequate field verification tool which declassifies old growth forest. The Environment Departments' Office of Conservation Regulator (OCR) are currently seeking feedback on that tool.

Email the OCR now, field verification is only necessary outside the mapping, and VicForests' can't be left to regulate themselves.

UPDATE: Submissions have now closed as of 10 January 2020

The Premier and Environment Minister promised to protect old growth forests, but old growth forests are still being logged right now. We need to know how they're going to stick to their commitment and ban old growth logging for good.

Send the premier and minister an email so they know we expect them to take immediate action to protect old growth forests like they've said.

It’s been an emotional few days following the Victorian government announcement that logging native forests will end in 2030. The government has also committed to state-wide protections for 90,000ha of old growth forests, and 96,000ha of new protected areas, 48,500 of which are in East Gippsland. An action statement for the threatened Greater Glider was also finally released, after two years of inaction following it’s up-listing to threatened in 2017.

The Andrews Labor government’s release of a new logging plan will hasten the decline of Australia’s largest gliding marsupial the Greater Glider, says Goongerah Environment Centre Office (GECO).   

In June 2017 the Greater Glider was listed as vulnerable to extinction under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act but nearly two years later a legally required action plan that is supposed to outline protection measures has not been released.  

This morning, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) will defend the Government’s continued logging of old growth forests in the face of vehement community opposition, as the trial Fauna and Flora Research Collective Inc  v The Secretary to DELWP and VicForests resumes in Victoria’s Supreme Court, for its final 3 days.

Fauna and Flora Research Collective (FFRC) -  represented by Environmental Justice Australia -  is seeking to enforce the protection of the minimum area of old-growth forest required by law across East Gippsland (60% of old growth wet and damp forest), a measure the Government has failed to implement.

An ancient tree inside the Granite Mountain coupe currently being logged.

East Gippsland's old growth forests are being destroyed by logging. 

Please support the protection of East Gippsland's forests and wildlife. Email Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews now.

We need to pile on the pressure and make the government act.

A Supreme Court case has offered a glimmer of hope for East Gippsland's old growth forests as 2018 draws to a close.

Our friends Fauna and Flora Research Collective (FFRC) are suing the state government for failing to meet their legal obligations to protect old growth forests.

This week the Vic environment department told the court that logging in ALL old growth forest should stop!

Read more here on The Guardian website

The Supreme court case brought by Fauna and Flora Research Collective (FFRC) against the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning (Environment Department) and VicForests will proceed after the case did not settle at court-ordered mediation yesterday.