Today The Supreme Court last week announced its decision on VicForests appeal of last November’s landmark court decision in Kinglake Friends of the Forest and Environment East Gippsland vs VicForests, known as ‘The Glider Case’.
Sue McKinnon, President of Kinglake Friends of the Forest, said: “ The panel of 3 judges upheld Justice Richards’s findings that VicForests’ actions were in breach of environment laws.The orders limiting logging in forests that are home to endangered gliders will remain.
“This decision gives endangered forest species a fighting chance of survival. It’s testament to the power of communities to fight for the natural world; for the places we love and the wildlife we share them with.
“The courts have shown that VicForests is incapable of observing environment laws: they must be abolished.”
“For years we have reported illegal logging to the Department of Environment. They have ignored VicForests countless breaches. We are concerned that now loopholes will be found to log critical habitat under other names, and the Department will continue to turn a blind eye.
“After a year-long court case, last November Justice Richards handed down a decision requiring state owned logging agency VicForests to a) thoroughly survey for endangered Greater Gliders and threatened Yellow Bellied Gliders in forest it planned to log, and b) implement certain protections for gliders living in forests scheduled for logging.
“Last year the Greater Glider was “uplisted” from threatened to endangered. The species has experienced an 80% decline in population over the last 20 years due to the cumulative effects of bushfires and native forest logging,” Ms McKinnon said.Quotations are from Sue McKinnon, President KinglakeFriends of the Forest